


Time remedy

by Chiisaioni



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Human, Fantasy, Gen, Hinted Franada, Hinted GerIta, Hinted PruHun, Hinted Spamano, Hinted USUK, Magic, Pirates, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3844273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiisaioni/pseuds/Chiisaioni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred had led a normal life until he discovered a manor that no one else was able to see. Wanting to investigate this mystery he takes his brother and faithful friend inside. When supposedly haunted place turns to have an owner, their lives take an unexpected turn. Sometimes in order to change something in your life all you have to do is wish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Alfred makes a wish.

It was ordinary day in ordinary town, somewhere in the middle of the USA. Alfred F. Jones was walking to his morning classes in local high school. The only reason why he wasn’t turning around, going back home to his lovely date with a pillow, was his brother. As the more responsible twin, Matthew’s morning routine consisted of ensuring that Alfred would get up, at least brushed his teeth and follow him to the school. They shared most of their classes so he could keep an eye on him, but it wasn’t necessary, as Alfred’s energy got hyper boost after meeting his friends. He instantly forgot he even had a brother, even walking back home without him, only to remember that Matthew should be somewhere near when he had trouble with his homework.

It was fine. Matthew was used to that. Alfred and their parents at least remembered about him sometimes. To other people he might as well be invisible. On the good side teachers often forgot about him and he hadn’t had his homework checked since elementary school. On the bad side teachers often forgot about him and he didn’t have attendance to half of his classes. His classmates often mistook him as his brother, which always made Alfred laugh.

“Dude, it’s like an honour that they think you’re me! I’ve got awesome looks, and you are my twin, so you have awesome looks too!” and Matthew wouldn’t know if he should take that as an insult or no.

They were twins, that was right, but besides similar height, hair colour and other small things they were as different as night and day. Where Alfred’s eyes were crystal blue, Matthew’s almost appear purple. Where Alfred was loud and obnoxious, Matthew was quiet and invisible. Where Alfred was almost oblivious to other’s feelings, Matthew was always wary of their opinion.

Luckily, it wasn’t like Matthew didn’t have any friends. There was the only person that always noticed him – Gilbert Beilschmidt. His grandparents moved from Germany to America long before he was born, so that’s why he had German last name. However, when asked, Gilbert always said that he was a direct descendant from Prussian king, Frederick the Great.

“Because it’s more awesome! And chicks like foreigners,” he said when Matthew asked, apparently ignoring the fact that Germany was also abroad. Matthew thought that he was saying that because he was bullied as a child, when kids always provoked him, asking about the Second World War and his grandfather Adolf.

He actually never understood Matthew’s problem, given as he himself was attention-grabbing, being an albino. As if this was not enough his personality was matching Alfred’s, often leading to gigantic quarrels, while the three of them were playing video games in twin’s house. Last weekend the main reason for them throwing punches at each other was whose character would be sitting at machine gun seat in the tank.

“This is the Seat Of Awesome! You’re not awesome enough to sit here!” screamed Alfred, yanking Gilbert by his shirt.

“Could you please tell your fucktard brother to calm his sissy ass down?” albino tried to kick the other to get free and both of them tumbled to the floor.

That was another thing about Gilbert. While he constantly cursed Alfred for being idiot and lousy brother, they were pretty good friends. Matthew suspected that the boy was actually a little jealous of twins’ relationship. Gilbert was always quarrelling with his parents, who never spared him a nice word, always criticising his behaviour and looks.

“You could at least try to dye your hair to some normal colour,” his mother once said, not noticing Matthew who once again was invisible. Gilbert being Gilbert just shrugged and with never-ending smile took Matthew upstairs so they could watch some movies.

The situation got worse when Gilbert’s little brother, Ludwig, went missing. Nearly three years ago Ludwig started to lose sleep, plagued by nightmares. At first Gilbert laughed it off.

“He’s going through puberty. You know what that means,” he winked and started telling everyone nearby about his first girlfriend. Matthew was sure there was no girl.

But Ludwig was getting paler and paler and some of his classmates said that he slept during classes. He was also getting angrier, snapping at everybody whenever something wasn’t going his way. Their parents started to become more worried about their younger son and it was just a matter of time before they’d started to blame Gilbert for Ludwig’s behaviour.

“They told me that it’s all my fault, that he is rebelling and trying to be like me. Like shit he is! Little Ludi never listened to the fuck I’ve said! And I’m not even rebelling!” Gilbert broke down that night, after punching a hole in Matthew’s bedroom door.

He had continued fighting with his parents and Ludwig started to disappear. First, it was for a short period of time. He was usually gone for an hour or two and no one knew where he was. Gilbert suspected that his little brother had found a girlfriend or was hiding smoking or drinking with his friends, so he didn’t bother to look for him. At the end their parents would blame only him, so it was only right if the little kid actually tried to do something rebellious. But then Ludwig started to disappear for longer periods of time. Now it wouldn’t be an hours but half a day. A whole day. Days. Then, after his 15th birthday, he disappeared completely.

Gilbert was devastated.

They’d tried to help as much as they could. Alfred led the search party through forest next to their town. Matthew tried to calm down Mrs. And Mr. Beilschmidt, saying that it was common that Ludwig disappeared and they should not jump to conclusions, especially the ones that involved Ludwig getting into occult group because of Gilbert.

After two weeks of searching they gave up and since then Gilbert tried to avoid his house as much as he could. He even skipped sleeping there, usually crashing on the spare mattress in Alfred’s room. They tried to avoid the topic and soon Gilbert was smiling again. Or he faked smiling. Matthew had the feeling it was the latter.

He smiled to the albino seeing him skidding on his shoes. Gilbert sat on the desk next to Matthew, dangling his feet in the air.

“What’s up Birdie?” he asked.

“Hi. I’ve asked you not to call me that,” Matthew said quietly.

“Nope. It’s too awesome and you’re the friend of awesome me so you deserve an awesome nickname!” Gilbert laughed. “Matthew is unawesome, anyway.”

“It’s my name.”

“Still unawesome. And I can’t call you Mattie because that dipshit calls you that.”

“He’s not a dipshit. He’s my brother. And you could just call me Matt.”

“Still nope,” said Gilbert. “Birdie is much more-…”

“YO GUYS~!!” Alfred laughed on top of his lounges. “Whatcha doin~?!”

Gilbert grimaced, “Awesome me and Birdie was just-…”

“What? Birdie?” Alfred leaned closer to his brother trying to see resemblance. “No. No bird here.”

“It’s Birdie, whatever you like it or not,” albino said.

Matthew just sighed. Just another ordinary day.

* * *

 

Alfred F. Jones, was what you would call typical high school star. Walking back home after rather trying American football practise he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he forgot about something. He got this feeling nearly every day, so he wasn’t bothered. It was probably something about homework anyway.

He could not complain about anything in his life. Yes, his name was something dull like Alfred, which he hated, despite his mother trying to explain to him that he’s got name after famous grandfather, but he successfully managed to convince almost everyone in school to call him Al “Hero” Jones. It wasn’t exactly hard task, given that everybody in school wanted to either be like him or be with him. If you weren’t friends with Golden Boy you were nothing.

Al knew that people said those things. Some people said he was dense or stupid. But those close to him knew that if something managed to catch his attention he became so absorbed in it, that he wouldn’t come out to the real world until he’d manage to achieve his goal. Like this one time when he realised it would be cool to be an astronomer. After quick research it turned out that to become one he should take advanced mathematics and physics classes, which was serious problem, as his math skills were near zero. Nevertheless, Al being Al, he closed himself in his bedroom for days, studying like madman, and half-year later he was one of top students in those classes.

The same could be said about his friends. He might not look like it, given his happy-go-lucky attitude, but he paid close attention to people around him. He never denied it, but if anyone asked him about who his friends were, he would say that there were only two people like that – his brother and Gilbert. He never considered those shallow acquaintances in his school to be friendships. Those were people he just hang out to have fun. If he flirted with girls or joked with guys it wasn’t because he wanted to be more popular. It was more like he wanted to make everyone happy, smiling, for whatever reason. And if the easiest way to make these blond girl from his history class smile was to compliment her and flirt a little, so be it. He didn’t want to see anyone moping around in misery. He wanted to be the Hero.

That was turning out to be his biggest and only problem. When everything in his life seemed perfect there were no room for adventures beyond going to nearby forest, no room for excitement beyond occasional football game, no room for trying to be a Hero beyond making not really unhappy people happier. Life was nothing more than ordinary.

_I just wish it could be like in superhero movies,_ he thought, _where I could have super powers, like flying, laser eyes, or something. I could teleport myself or even time-travel! Every day would be a new adventure! And Mattie would be my best side-kick!_ He kicked nearby stone when sudden rush of wind swept leaves from the grass. Al spat as some of them hit him in the face.

_Great, now I’ve got some leaves under my shirt,_ he grimaced trying to reach to his back. After a few unsuccessful attempts he gave up and straightened his back to put the backpack on. He looked around and gasped in surprise. Next to little white house was grim looking manor, with rich encrusted railing on stairs leading to front door. Or should he say gate, because they’ve look enormous and gloomy with knocker in shape of lion head. Alfred was sure that if he came closer it would turn out that it’s the size of a real head.

What took him by surprise was that this building was even here. He was sure that there was just an empty field next to that white house, and he was walking this route every day since he started his secondary education.

_Maybe I’m just as dense as they say,_ he thought. _Nah! No way! I was probably just too tired after school to notice this freaking house,_ he laughed awkwardly and started walking again.

Little did they all know that soon everything would be far from ordinary.


	2. Invisible manor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Kiku tells a horror story.

It was a Saturday evening when Alfred and Matthew decided to throw a party. Well, mostly Alfred decided, but Matthew had nothing against it. At first it was supposed to be one of those wild parties, where everybody gets drunk and there is that one person who falls asleep on the roof. Then Mrs. And Mr. Jones decided that they don’t want to leave home for this weekend and that meant no alcohol and parents under the same roof. Most of Alfred’s friends said that if there was no beer and no loud music then there is no need to show up and that’s how they ended with the small group in their living room, watching “Pirates of Caribbean” for hundredth time. When the movie ended it was already dark outside.

“We should tell some ghost stories,” said Gilbert. Everybody cheered and one of the girls stood up and started to turn off all the lights.

“Why ghost stories?” Alfred wailed. “Wasn’t that creepy pirate-ghost scary enough? Come on guys! Let’s just play something else and, I don’t know, play spin the bottle?” he pleaded.

“Shut up Al and sit down,” Gilbert yanked him down by his T-shirt. “Kiku’s going to tell us some awesome stories, right?” he asked dark haired Asian boy, who pass for the best knowledge for ghost stories in their school.

Kiku looked awkwardly to others and said, “Well, I could tell one or two stories”.

Everybody moved closer and sat tight in a circle, no light in the room except a flashlight that Kiku was holding, as he started his tale. First one, about a half-child half-wolf, elicited a few gasps. Second one, about bloodthirsty people on the other side of a mirror, made everyone tremble and the circle tightened.

Kiku started another story, “Somewhere North America there was a town, where life went slowly. Everything was normal; everyday ended the same, where nothing that would cross the borders of normal human lives happened. One of the residents, a boy, nearly our age, was walking back from his friend’s house. It was already dark outside and the only thing that was giving light to the road was the moon. He walked alone. Every step echoed around, louder than it should be. The wind blew, bringing the smell of fresh grass. The boy stopped, giving in to the aroma, but he tensed. There was still the sound of steps on the pavement. He turned around, but there was nothing there. He started walking again, this time slower, trying to listen-…”

“AAAAAAA!! WHO’S THERE?!” someone screamed, girls shrieked and the lights were turned on.

Alfred was trembling from fear, “Dude! Where the hell did you come from?” he screamed at Matthew, who winced.

“I was sitting next to you since the movie,” he said, slightly offended by being not noticed by his own brother.

“No, you weren’t! I swear he just appeared from nowhere! Like a ghost!” Alfred tried to explain his screaming to laughing people.

“Yeah, sure Al,” Gilbert was rolling on the carpet from laughter. “It’s not like you are actually _scared_ by Kiku’s stories,” he mocked.

“It’s alright Alfred-kun,” said Kiku. “I think that story was a little bit too much.”

“No way! You have to tell the rest. It wasn’t even the good part!” one of the boys whined.

“So~ karaoke?” asked Alfred already turning on the mikes. There were few whines and a sigh from Matthew, but everybody was stiff from sitting so long during the movie and the story so they’d quickly agreed to sing. They split into two groups, with Alfred and Gilbert as the leaders. Everyone quickly engaged in fun, some of them singing, being backup singers or simply cheering “Team Awesome” and “Team Awesomer”.

Half an hour later, when twins’ mum climbed down to complain about screaming her son called singing, Alfred was forced to hand over the mike. Not sure what to do with himself he spotted Kiku sitting in the corner of the couch. Grabbing the bowl of popcorn, he plopped down next to the Asian boy.

“Popcorn?” he offered, waving the bowl in front of Kiku’s face.

“No, thank you very much.”

They sat in awkward silence, with occasional munching noises from Alfred, watching others jumping around while singing.

“So…” Alfred began, “I was wondering if you know some more stories, like scary ones, about our town or surroundings,” he pretended to be mildly interested in the topic, when in reality he wanted to ask this questions to Kiku since they’d been telling ghost-stories.

“I thought that you are not interested in those kinds of stories, Alfred-kun,” questioned Kiku, although he visibly perked up.

“Yeah, about that,” Alfred gave sheepish smile, “that was really Mattie’s fault. He teleported!” Alfred was waving his arms around, strewing popcorn all over the couch. “Never mind! You know those stories, right? Like about a ghost graveyard, forests with demons or… haunted houses?”

“I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert, Alfred-kun. But I can promise that I would try to help as much as I’m able.”

“Ok, so here’s the deal. Just don’t laugh, ok?” Alfred asked nervously. Kiku nodded, so he continued. “Is there any story about a really old manor around here? One that’s sometimes invisible and gives off a really creepy feeling, like it doesn’t belong there?”

Kiku sat in silent for a minute or two, clearly thinking. “No, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you Alfred-kun. I know most old stories about this area, including the ones that involve fairies in the forest like you asked, but I’ve never encountered story about disappearing manor here. Have you seen something like that, Alfred-kun?”

“I thought I saw it, but now I’m not even sure. Anyway! If you say it’s not haunted that’s good enough for me,“ Alfred laughed. “Everybody can sleep peacefully while the Hero is around!”

And it’s time for the Hero to look closer to this mystery himself.

* * *

 

Alfred was standing in front of the manor. Here it was, standing right where he saw it a week ago. Since Saturday evening Alfred was observing the building. On Sunday morning he almost ran to this spot, just to prove it to himself that the manor has not disappeared. The same thing repeated every day, Alfred getting closer and closer to the front stairs. But today was the day. The day when he would go inside and finally know what is inside. He just had to wait a little more to gather his courage, or if you had asked him, doing reconnaissance.

 _Kiku might be an expert, but there still might be some lonely bloodthirsty ghost inside_ , he thought.

He stepped closer to the stair, eying warily the door knocker. Light danced on the doors, giving the lion almost real gaze, like it was anticipating, watching Alfred’s every move, judging. Alfred lifted his foot and jumped on the first step, not letting his eyes off the lion.

He waited, expecting something to happen. When nothing did, he smiled reassuringly to himself and climbed the rest of the steps. Stopping right in front of the door he looked at the knocker and said, “It’s stupid. You’re just grim fat lion”. Grabbing heavy loop hanging from its jaw, he knocked.

After few moments of silence he knocked again. Still nothing. He pushed the handle down, opening the door slightly with loud creek. “Hello?” he called through the slit. “Hello?” he pushed the door further open and stepped inside. “Is anyone here? A ghost?” Alfred lifted his head and looked around.

He stood in a vast entrance hall. Most of it was hidden in darkness, not a single lamp being lit and all windows covered by heavy curtains. He stepped further into the manor, noticing that inside was as well decorated as the front of the building. He could recognize that the floor was made of marble. Heavy chandelier above him was glistening even in this darkness and Alfred was almost certain that it wasn’t run by electricity.

Every step that he took echoed, giving an illusion that it was bouncing from wall to wall, back to Alfred and away. Almost like it was really someone else repeating every sound that was made. Directly opposite the front door, at the other site of the hall, was a wide staircase, covered with thick carpet. It led to the first floor with the balcony going around the main hall. There were few doors on the ground level and few visible ones on the upper floor. Every one of them was as heavy incrusted and enormous in size as the front door. All of them were closed.

 _This whole place looks like in the movies_ , Alfred thought. _I bet that behind one of those doors is an old armour or something creepy like that._ Kiku said that this place didn’t have any ghosts, but who the hell kn _ows. Nobody never asks ghosts if they want to be somewhere._

He stepped closer to the staircase, running his hand on wood encrusted railing. He slowly climbed up the stairs, looking ahead at the wall on the upper floor. There, between sconces, were hanging two natural sized portraits. One of them depicted a beautiful woman, with long brown hair, that fell in waves on her shoulders. She had a yellow flower clipped in her hair. _It must be a really old house_ , Alfred thought looking at her bottle-green Victorian dress. _Or a really old portrait_. She was smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes, that were looking at Alfred with sad resignation.

He looked at another painting, hanging beside the first one. It was also a portrait, this one of a man, looking the same age as the woman. He wore navy blue frock coat, with matching vest, trousers and a tie, white shirt with a high collar. He had sandy messy hair, which had fallen on his sizeable eyebrows. What had distinguished him from the lady on the previous painting was his expression. One corner on his mouth was lifted in a smirk, like he was above the person watching him. His eyes had dangerous glint in them, giving the feeling that they were real, eyeing and appraising.

Alfred thought he looked like one of High Lords of Snobbishland. _He’s missing the staff. One with a diamond or another gem on top would suit him_ , he mocked.

He turned from the paintings and walked along the balcony. Looking at the opposite wall he wondered what that indistinct shape he saw was, there was little light at the ground floor, and upstairs was almost dark like in morgue.

 _That is REALLY helping me here. Thinking about dead people_ , he scolded himself.

He walked to the strange shape, feeling a little more anxious because of his comment. When he was near the stair he stopped abruptly.

 _Voice!_ He gasped shuddering.

“…it is always so dark”. Alfred’s eyes were big as a plates. He didn’t dare to move an inch, hearing that the voice was coming from behind him.

He stood there for what seems like an hour, listening to the voice that was now reduced to mere murmurs. When the fear let go he decided he had to check.

 _Heroes don’t fear voices_ , he encouraged himself and looked back.

“FINE!” deep voice boomed through whole manor. With a loud snap all the curtains on the windows drew themselves, letting the light inside.

Alfred did not wait to see what the shape or the voice owner was. He never ran as fast as then in his whole life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of you took no notice of tags - it's not a horror story, although it may be pretty clear given the way Al/Gilbert duo works. I'm trying to keep this story light-hearted, but that doesn't mean there won't be any drama ahead. I love drama and clichés ;)
> 
> It may seem slow now, but it picks up the tempo in few chapters. Introductions must be made, some things must be said.


	3. The Master

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Alfred meets a vampire.

The next day Alfred couldn’t wait to go to school. Matthew could not remember when was the last time that it was his brother that woke him up and hurried him to eat his breakfast faster. After long sleepless night, which Alfred spent curling under blankets waiting for invisible force to come and murder him, he was desperate to find Kiku and ask for explanation. No, demand them. Nobody would convince him that this freaking manor was normal building, not to mention that there WERE ghosts, contrary to what the boy was saying. He felt betrayed for trusting Kiku, but more than that he felt scared and that required swallowing his pride and asking for help.

Luckily, they shared the first class in the morning. He almost ran to the classroom, leaving Matthew far behind as soon as they had stepped outside of their home. He felt a wave of disappointment, noticing that the one person that he was looking for wasn’t there yet. He absent-mindedly answered all “Hello”s and pats on the back from his colleagues as he headed for his seat, flopped into it and stared intensively at the door.

He knew he wouldn’t have to wait long, as Kiku was extremely punctual person, and was always at least 15 minutes early to avoid being late. Sure enough, when he walked and sat at his seat, Alfred approached him.

“Hi buddy!” he said putting both of his hand on the boy’s desk. “You’ve lied.”

Kiku visibly shrunk into himself. Alfred was known to be sometimes hot-blooded and giving his successes in football one didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that anger. “H-hello Alfred-kun,” Kiku almost whispered. “Did I do something to offend you?”

“You’ve said that there would be no ghost. And guess what?” Alfred circled the desk and plopped down on the seat ahead of, turning to face Kiku. He bent closer. “There. Were. Ghosts.”

Kiku breathed the sigh of relief. So it was just plain old Alfred, scared of anything supernatural.  
“Alfred-kun, I’m not an expert in those matters. I only like to tell interesting stories.”

“But there was something! Like for real!” Alfred was almost shouting, waving his arms around. “It was really creepy inside, all dark and… quiet. And there was this voice and the curtains moved and it was trying to kill me and it’s coming for me and I don’t wanna dieeee~!” he whined.

“Alfred-kun, calm down. I can’t help you but I know who can. I don’t want to harm you giving unprofessional advices.”

Alfred leaned closer in his chair and dropped down his voice, “You know him? A professional in ghosts?”

“I wouldn’t say that he is specialising in ghosts. He’s knowledge in that matter is high beyond mine. He’s got a vast expertise in most magic types, but also a bit about supernatural creatures. Anyway, he’s bound to help you more than I.”

“Yeah, magic,” Alfred smirked. “Like that shit existed. So he’s so crazy to believe in anything. How could he help with this serious problem?”

_He believes in ghosts but not in magic_ , Kiku thought _. Nothing surprises me anymore_. “I’m sorry that I can’t help you Alfred-kun, but he’s the best person that I can recommend in our town.”

“Oh, ok. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to meet the dude. So who’s it?”

“You know him. We have literature class together. It’s Vladimir-san.”

“That vampire?!” Alfred screeched.

Kiku looked a little baffled by that, which with his usual lack of reaction was pretty strong emotion.

“Most of the gossips about Vladimir-san are false. He is certainly not a vampire or any non-human species. I can vote for it, if it would please you Alfred-kun.”

Alfred looked at him with disbelief. “So you are saying that he’s completely normal, like you or me? How can he help me then?”

Kiku cocked his head and said with calm voice, “I’ve said he is human, but I did not say that he hasn’t got abilities. And if he will not help you himself then he has many connections that you could use.”

Alfred didn’t know which one was worse.

* * *

 

Alfred gulped, pacing back and forth the corridor. He feared entering the library, where he knew who would be waiting there. Kiku assured him, that Vladimir would be able to help him, but who knew – Kiku had been wrong once, he could be wrong another time.

Everyone in the school knew who Vladimir was. From the first moment that he said his name, through teacher saying that he was from Romania, to final blow when the boy said he practised magic – he was doomed. By the end of the first week everyone knew they had vampire in the school and Alfred wasn’t as sure as Kiku that it wasn’t true.

They’ve arranged the meeting in a school library. Kiku wanted to invite the boy to his house but Alfred begged him for more public area. If there were more witnesses it was more likely that the vampire would not kill him.

When he stepped into dusty and dim library he instantly spotted the one who was supposed to help him. The boy with brown not so short hair was leaning on one of the windows, one leg hanging from the window-sill he was sitting on. He looked a little younger from Alfred and there was nothing special in those features, but Alfred knew it was him. You could not ignore the little hat with ribbons that he was constantly wearing and the fact that he was drawing weird symbols on the windows with his fingers, fogging it with breath. Or the fact that he turned towards Alfred the second he stepped into the room.

_Whoa! He looks like some steam-punk Beautiful Mind with that hat_ , Alfred thought walking towards the smirking boy. _He even smiles like crazy one._

“Hey” he said, “are you the Vam-Vladimir?” he corrected himself. If it was even possible, the boy’s smile grew even wider, giving him the look of Cheshire Cat. _I don’t see fangs, but maybe he’s got some trick to hide them._

“Hi!” the boy turned to face Alfred and extended his hand, “for friends and business clients, just Vlad.”

_Which one am I?_ Alfred thought shaking the hand.

“So,” Vladimir started, laying his hands on knees and leaning closer to Alfred. “Kiku said that you’ve got some demonic problem.”

_I’ve never seen him this excited. And people say that he usually sleeps through all classes._ “It’s about ghost in old manor. They try to kill me.”

“Nonsense. Ghost don’t harm, they have enough problems themselves. It must be some kind of demons or other spiritual being.”

That didn’t ease Alfred in any way. “De-demons? Like with horns and tails?”

The boy laughed. “No. You people watch too much movies.”

_‘You people’?! So he is NOT a human!_ Alfred was beginning to panic. Vladimir looked at him closely and sighed.

“Look,” he tried his calming voice. He had experience with that kind of behaviour. Not many could accept what was going all around them. “If you want me to help you I’ve to understand what we are dealing with. You need to tell me everything you know with all the details. What did you see, what did you hear, what did you smell and even what did you feel at that moment. Can you do this?” he asked, hoping for a confirmation. He was curious. Ever since he moved from his homeland he hadn’t got any interesting cases. He thought that this town was the black spot on supernatural map, but clearly he was wrong.

Alfred shook his head and said, “No, I’ll tell you.” With hushed voice he started telling everything that happened since the day when he saw the manor for the first time.

As he told the story Vladimir leaned closer and closer, his eyes burning with curiosity and zeal. When Alfred described the look of the manor he gasped and when he recounted the paintings, he could swear that he saw jealousy flashing behind boy’s eyes.

“That’s impossible,” whispered Vladimir, moving back to window-sill. He turned his head away and there was a moment of silence between the two of them. Alfred shuffled his feet, not knowing what he was supposed to do. When Vlad was excited, Alfred felt terrified, knowing the boy to be eccentric and having a twisted sense of normal. But when he was quiet and shocked ( _That was it, right?_ ) he simply didn’t know how to react.

Finally, after long minutes he couldn’t take it anymore. “Listen,” Alfred said, “I know that you-“

“I’ve tried so hard,” the quiet and disappointed voice of Vladimir interrupted him. Not turning his head from facing the window he continued, “I’ve tried and tried and I finally succeeded. He heard me and came.“ Vladimir returned to painting strange symbols on the glass. “I’d begged him to take me with him, to let me be the one he can call _student_. He left, never to return again, no matter how much I’d pleaded. I thought that if I try to change, if I try to _help_ people, he may change his mind. Never once I demanded payment for help. But he never came back.”

Vladimir turned his face to Alfred. There was angry look all across his face. “But you, a no one. A no one that couldn’t tell the difference between lost spirit and a reptilian. You just _happen_ to enter his manor,” he almost hissed the last words, his expression getting darker with every second.

Alfred did not like this change of behaviour, but it wasn’t much different from what he’s used to deal with his teammates; angry and furious after losing a match. He felt the rush of courage as he said with firm voice, “So you won’t help me?”

The boy looked straight into his eyes and the painful look flashed through his face as he said, “You don’t need help,” and he turned away.

As Alfred turned around to walk away he heard quiet words, “For what I know he might have even invited you.”

* * *

 

Vladimir’s words circled in Alfred’s head whole week. He analysed over and over what he had heard, trying to decide what to make of them. Once he thought he should just forget about the manor, for it seemed nothing good would come from meddling with supernatural forces. Another time he thought of Vlad’s jealous words, that he said Alfred was “invited” and he felt burning curiosity to know more.

Going deeper into his thoughts he became subdued and more quiet, which didn’t escaped his colleagues’ attention. Matthew and Gilbert were especially concerned. When Friday came and it became apparent that Alfred was still not himself they decided to act.

They had rounded him during lunch time, demanding answers.

“There is nothing wrong with me,” Alfred defended himself. “I’m just thinking.”

Gilbert snorted, “You? Thinking? Are you kidding?” Seeing the lack of reaction from Alfred he stopped laughing and asked in more serious tone, “Ok, so tell us what’s making our Super Star so troubled?” Matthew nodded to what Gilbert was saying.

Alfred looked at them suspiciously. He really wanted to tell somebody about the mansion, but he was unsure so he said, “And you promise not to laugh? It’s not exactly a normal problem.”

“Ok, so you’re not gay,” Gilbert laughed. “I owe you 5 bucks Birdie.”

Matthew, who was ignoring Gilbert, said to Alfred, “Al, seriously, what’s going on?” He put his hand on his brother shoulder. Alfred looked like lost puppy.

“You would not believe this…” Alfred started as he began telling his story.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So~, how do you like Romania? :D I'm in love in Magic Trio and I had to put him in this story. He's not used much by Hima-san, so aside from his appearance everything could be OC. Oh well, we may never know. Nevertheless, I had fun writing him as crazy guy with slight personality disorder.
> 
> Also, I did my research for this chapter *so proud of myself* I've actually knew that there was more to demonology than simple Devil/ghost/Boo-hoo things, but still have not expected so vast community. I've only browsed few sites about spirit entities, but if any of you know good book about that I would really appreciate if you told me about them.


	4. Get the party started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Gilbert plays with new toys.

“So let me ask again – why are we staring at a field?” Gilbert asked, looking at Alfred with disbelief. If it wasn’t for Matthew who insisted they go with Alfred to the place he was scared of so he could “address his fears”, he wouldn’t even be here.

“I don’t understand!” Alfred was freaking out. “How can you not see it?! It’s right here,” he pointed with his hand to where the front door of the manor was.

“Al, there is nothing,” Matthew said smiling sadly at his brother, looking concerned.

“I tell you it is here!” screamed Alfred, grabbing his brother by his shoulders and pushing forward to the manor.

“Hey! Leave Birdie alone!” Gilbert shouted.

Matthew gasped, looking with wide eyes ahead. “It- it’s here,” he choked on his words.

“What are you two doing? You two making fun of me again? It’s not awesome, you know.” Gilbert walked closer toward brothers. They did not respond, as Alfred was staring at Matthew and Matthew stared ahead. “HEY! I’m talking to you, you-…“ He grabbed Alfred’s arm, wanting to get his attention, when suddenly a building materialised out of nowhere, where there was the field before a second. “Wha-what the fuck?!” Gilbert shouted startled.

Alfred looked calmly at his friends and said “So now you believe me?”

“But if you were right that it really exist, would you also be right about the ghosts?” Matthew’s voice was so quiet it almost was a whisper.

His brother shook his head and said, “No. This weird vampire dude, Vlad, he said that it wasn’t a ghost. More like a person or something. He didn’t really explain it, he just started freaking out.” Alfred looked up where the windows were on the upper floor. “But he said I was invited.”

“Al, I don’t think that entering this manor is a good idea,” Matthew said, “If something wanted you to go there it might be because they wanted to hurt you. Or even kill you.” He looked uneasily toward his brother.

“There is only one way to find what it is,” Gilbert exclaimed. “We have to look inside,” and with that statement he ran up the front stairs.

“Gilbert! Wait!” Alfred screamed, running behind the boy but he stopping just before the first step.

Gilbert turned to face Alfred, one hand on the door handle, and with mischievous smirk said, “What’s the matter Al? Scared? Where’s your sense of adventure?” he pushed door open, stepping inside.

Alfred did not move, watching the spot where Gilbert was standing just a minute ago. He seemed frozen, when Matthew walked toward him, nudging him on the back. “Come on Al, we have to go too. He might kill himself with so much enthusiasm.” He looked at Alfred who didn’t even flinch. “Look, if something bad happens we can always run. You said yourself that Vladimir was sure it wasn’t bad.”

He steered Alfred through the front door. When they had stepped into entrance hall he stopped, looking mesmerized along the room. Alfred immediately spotted the difference, as the whole room was bathed in sunlight coming through the windows.

 _Were the curtains drawn the whole time?_ he thought.

Gilbert was standing right under the chandelier. “You lied Al, this place is not creepy,” he said. “There are no cobwebs and giant spiders hanging from the ceiling. It actually looks kind of boring,” he pouted.

“I’ve never said it was dirty,” said Alfred, catching up with him. “It looked creepier when it was dark here.”

“So, since nothing has attacked us yet, I would say it’s pretty harmless to snoop around a little,” Gilbert said, walking to one of the doors near stairs. He pushed them open and the twins followed him to the room.

Gilbert whistled, “Not bad.”

It looked like they walked into a trophy room. Along the walls there were cabinets and showcases, above which hung weapons, trophies and paintings.

Alfred stopped in front of one of those. Behind a glass panel there was a tailor’s dummy; on which there was hanging thick crimson red coat, lined with black cotton fabric and trimmed with gold lace that was sew into elaborate patterns. On top of the dummy hung three-cornered hat which had feathers in the same colour as the coat.

He could take his eyes off that hat. He looked around the glass, searching for the way to take it out and try it on himself.

“That’s a nice costume,” said Matthew behind him. Alfred jumped, startled, and asked, “Do you think it’s fake?”

“I don’t know,” Matthew replied. “I’ve never seen a real pirate. It looks a little worn out, so it was used by somebody. But don’t you think it looks like something out of the movie or rum commercial? I can’t imagine somebody wearing that without looking ridiculous.”

Alfred cast critical eye on it. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Even _Pirates of Caribbean_ looked dirtier than that.” _But I would kill to try on that hat_ , he thought.

“Maybe that lame clothes are fake but that babe is one hundred percent real,” said Gilbert from across the room. They looked over in his direction and saw the boy balancing on a chair he had dragged in front of a fireplace. He tried to reach a cutlass that was hanging crossed with bayonet above the fireplace. Seeing as he couldn’t reach it, no matter how hard he stood on his toes, he jumped up, grabbing the cutlass by the handle and landed one-knee on the floor. “And that’s how you do it, losers,” he laughed.

While Gilbert duelled with an air, Matthew was looking along the walls. His attention attracted on of the paintings. “Al,” he called his brother. “Isn’t this the lady you were talking about?” he pointed at the painting.

Alfred joined him and looked up. “Yup, that’s the same. But it isn’t the same dude,” he said, pointing to lady’s companion. It was a brown haired man with one curl almost standing up on top of his head. “That one wasn’t wearing glasses. And the portraits were huge, like, human sized.” He walked away, pretending to be a soldier fighting with Gilbert.

Matthew looked at the painting for a few minutes, absorbed in his thoughts. He wanted to know the story, as he felt that there was a meaning behind this painting hanging in this room.

When he turned away he realised that he was alone. Clearly Alfred and Gilbert abandoned him, roaming around the rest of the manor. He tried to follow the voices, hearing their laughter echoing through halls. _They found new toys and forgot all about the ghost_ , he thought smiling. He didn’t really believe in supernatural beings but he couldn’t deny that Alfred’s story disturbed him.

He soon found them, chasing around the entrance hall. Gilbert was wearing a helmet from a rusty old armour as Alfred ran from him, turning once in a while to pretend shooting him from encrusted pistol.

“You should put these things down. These aren’t ours,” Matthew said.

Gilbert shrugged, taking of the helmet. “I don’t see the owner anywhere around. I say we check other rooms – maybe they have awesome stuff in them too.” He turned to Alfred. “Last one on the upper floor is a pig fart,” he said and darted upstairs.

Matthew walked slowly behind, finding them standing in front of two big portraits Alfred said about.

“That’s the dude you were talking about, Al?” Gilbert asked.

“Yeah, the same one.”

“He looks a little bossy,” said Matthew.

“More like stuffy grumpy dude. But I bet he would be fun after few beers,” Gilbert laughed.

“Let’s check more rooms,” said Alfred, heading to a door on the right side of portraits.

He pushed the door open and they walked in. Wherever they looked there were books. On the little table, on a sofa, on a chair, on a window sill, but what they looked at was the lines and lines of shelves. Entire walls were filled with books and above them there were another two floors connected with to the balcony with ladders. A dream-come-true for every book-worm.

They looked up. “It’s too high,” Matthew said.

“What do you mean?”

Matthew looked at his brother. “How many floors does this manor have? How did it look from the outside?”

“What? It was two flo-… Ooh, I see.” Alfred looked a little bewildered at distant ceiling. “Maybe it’s just optic illusion or some mirrors, just to make it look bigger.”

“Nah, it’s real!” Shouted Gilbert patting books on second floor. While they were talking he climbed the ladders up. “Now you’re all under my feet!” he laughed and slid the ladder along the shelf.

“You look like a discount Disney character,” Alfred laughed.

“Guys,” Matthew said, trying to get their attention. “I really don’t think we should be hanging around in this manor anymore. There is clearly something going.”

Gilbert jumped to their level. “No prob Birdie. It’s just some architecture trick. No need to get all scared.” He steered Matthew out of the room. “We’ve got your evil twin for that,” he said, turning his head back to Alfred and sticking his tongue out.

Alfred rolled his eyes. “’Coz you’re soooo mature.” He went behind them.

Next to the library was a room that looked so normal and out of place in this manor at the same time, they had temporary felt silent. It was simple living room with basic appliances and comfortable looking couch in front of a big TV. The only thing that was not common was a piano, standing in one of the corners.

“An armoury, a giant library and a living room with a TV and music set,” was the first said between them by Gilbert. “What’s next? A morgue? An inside garden?”

“It’s called a patio,” said Matthew.

Alfred examined the TV and its surroundings. “You know what this thing is missing? A console. Never mind which, any type. There are no games either. Who needs a TV without a console?” He looked outraged by a simple thought.

“There are movies on this stand,” pointed Matthew.

“Duh, that’s the only reason why I know it doesn’t belong to some psycho.” Alfred stopped in front of the screen and poked it, hoping for some reaction.

“Stop whining and look at this shit,” said Gilbert, leaning over speakers and music set. “It’s fantastic! Even has a gramophone!”

“Really? I don’t see a horn,” said Alfred, looking at the instrument over Gilbert’s shoulder.

“Because it’s a modern one, the sound comes from the speakers.” Gilbert explained smiling, having one of the rare occasions to brag about something.

“Hey! I just got an awesome idea!” Alfred jumped, excited. “Let’s throw a party! For the whole school! This manor is big enough to fit everybody and we can play some music from this,” he pointed to the music set. “Is it working? We could do an old-school party with that gramophone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Al,” said Matthew. “You’re forgetting it’s not our house and there is somethi-…”

“Let’s check one of these vinyl records out,” Gilbert interrupted him. “Wow! These are the really old ones. Maybe something classical or punk rock? Or maybe,” he fished out a _Queen_ record and showed it to the twins, “do you want to hear the gods?”

“Yeah, play it!” Alfred’s eyes were shining with excitement.

Gilbert put the record and fiddled with cords until quiet music started to fill the room.

“Louder, dude. Let’s check how much volume this one can take,” Alfred complained.

“We really shouldn’t do this,” Matthew was trying to reason with them. They ignored him and Gilbert turned up the music.

“Louder!”

A little more volume.

“LOUDER!” Alfred laughed, trying to outshout the music.

There was a loud bang.

Everything evolved into chaos. The music was cut short and Alfred and Gilbert screeched, staring  
wide-eyed in the direction of the door. Matthew turned around and saw the same man from the portrait looking at them with a furious expression.

“What the bloody hell are you doing in my house?”


	5. It's a kind of magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which everything is magical.

“Well, I’m waiting,” the man said.

Alfred looked at his brother and Gilbert only to see the same look of shock mixed with visible fear.

“You think he sees us?” Alfred whispered.

“He asked us a question, so I think the answer is ‘yes’,” Gilbert whispered back.

“Leave them alone Arthur. They’re just kids,” a voice behind the man said.

Another figure appeared at the door. They all gasped, as they looked at another person from the paintings. This time it was the young woman with long brown hair. Both of them weren’t wearing the same elegant clothes in which they were depicted, but rather some worn and dirtied military clothes, although Alfred couldn’t say from which army.

The man sighed, “Clearly, kids and idiots, as well.” He rubbed his temples. “It’s useless.” He sighed again. “Alright, sit down. I’m going to make myself a tea before this blasted headache gets any worse and before I come back you can all think of an explanation to your pestering presence in my house,” and with that he turned on his heel and walked out of room.

The woman sat down at the couch and said, “Come on guys, I don’t bite.” She smiled and gestured to free seats. She looked strangely out of place in her uniform on pristine leather in front of TV.

Gilbert was the first one to shake off the shock and he plopped down with laugh. “Nice guy. Is he always like that?”

“He has his grumpy side,” she smiled. “But what would you expect from anyone but to be angry when there are intruders in their home.”

Alfred and Matthew joined them on the couch. “Are you ghosts?” Alfred asked, which came as a whisper for he was still scared out of his mind.

The woman chuckled. “Not at all! We are just simple travellers.”

“Travellers? As for business trip?”

“No. We’re more kind of-“

“We’re time travellers,” the man interrupted from the doorframe.

He was carrying the tray with tea set, which he set on the table, not showing that he noticed the shock on the boys’ faces. He handed each of them a cup, receiving only quiet a ‘Thank you’ from Matthew.

He looked at their petrified faces and said, “So who are you?”

Nobody said anything for a while, until one quiet, shaky voice said, “I-I’m Matthew.” And just like that the silence was broken.

“Gilbert Beilschmidt, at your service, if you require any awesomeness,” he offered his hand which the man shook unwillingly.

“Are you really not a ghost?” Alfred asked.

The man looked at him bewildered, “Of course not. Do you believe in that nonsense?” he smirked.

“Oh, ok.” Alfred straightened his back and summoned his flashy nice-to-meet-you smile. “I’m Alfred, but you can call me Al.”

“Well, my name is Arthur and you are trespassing in my house,” he eyed the group warily.

“And I’m Erzsébet, but if you can’t pronounce it properly, like Arthur,” the man looked at her angrily, ”you can call me Eliza,” she smiled.

They all looked at each other while Gilbert silently tried to mouth _Erzsébet_ and Alfred made face of disgust after sipping his tea.

“We’re sorry, sir, for touching your possessions,” Matthew broke the silence. “We were just curious because this house is really sticking out in neighbourhood,” he tried to explain.

“And you have really cool stuff here, like that armour in the hall,” Gilbert interrupted. “Do know how to fight with that sword? I’ve always wanted to know how to,” he exclaimed.

“Actually, it’s Elizabeth’s _stuff_ so I think it would be only appropriate to ask her for help,” he smirked. “I know that this house has some peculiar things inside and its magnificent look can be disturbing, as you are used to more… simple buildings. What I am interested in, is how you were able to find it?”

“What do you mean? Me and Birdie didn’t even seen this manor before this idiot led us inside,” Gilbert protested.

“Nobody _led_ you anywhere!” Alfred argued. “You ran up the stairs like a madman out of your own free will!”

“So that means that it was you that saw my house first and showed it to the others?” Arthur asked.

“Yup,” Alfred nodded. “I wanted them to come inside with me in case something would show up,” he admitted sheepishly.

Arthur looked at him curiously. Alfred felt like the man’s piercing gaze was burning the hole in his head.

“Interesting,” Arthur said finally.

Gilbert put down his cup loudly. “You two are time travellers and you are stuffy Brit – you’re the next Doctor, right?”

“What?” Arthur asked bewildered.

“Better question would be - who?” Gilbert leaned. “Like Doctor Who.”

Elizabeth started to laugh and turned to clearly abashed Arthur. “No way! Not again!” she choked between laughs.

Arthur cleared his throat and said, still red-faced, “Yes, we are time travellers. Actually, I am time-travelling and Elizabeth is kind of my companion.” He threw the girl a burning look. “But no, I am not the Doctor. But for your information, there is high possibility that this show exist because of my previous actions.”

“It’s based on you? Like you were the first Doctor ever?” Alfred asked amazed.

“Yes, I’ve just said that,” Arthur retorted, getting irritated. “It’s based on us, but we were more like an inspiration not the foundation of the story. It’s not like we are aliens travelling in bloody police phone box!”

“Ok, ok, chill out dude!” Alfred raised his hands in defence. “If you’re not an alien then how do you travel in time? Did you see the dinosaurs?”

“By magic,” Arthur smiled with a look of pride.

“So you like went to Hogwarts and have a wand?”

The smile disappeared, getting replaced with annoyed scowl. “No, I don’t have wand. No, I don’t think Hogwarts exists. No, I haven’t met Harry Potter.”

Elizabeth, who was still laughing during their conversation, was gasping for air. “How come,” she said, “that whenever we meet someone from this time it’s always either Who or Hogwarts questions?” She wiped the tears that fell from laughter.

“I honestly don’t have an idea,” Arthur grumbled, covering his face in hands.

“Excuse me, but why are you travelling in time?” Matthew asked.

Alfred look at his brother bewildered. “Duh, it’s obvious! For fun!”

“Actually we’re not strictly just time travellers,” said Elizabeth, who just managed to stop laughing. “Whenever there is trouble concerning supernatural abilities that shouldn’t happen or be normal we go there to straighten things out.”

“So you are like Magical Guard or Knights? That’s so cool!” Alfred exclaimed.

Elizabeth laughed. “That again just Arthur’s job. I wouldn’t call you a Guardian but there was a time when you had a knighthood,” she smiled to Arthur who was blushing furiously.

Gilbert and Alfred gasped at the same time. “You were a knight? That’s so cool!” Alfred was jumping excitedly in his seat. “How did you know when there was trouble in magic and everything?”

Arthur looked away still blushing and said, “I am able to sense it. In almost every living being is a small amount of magic and if one has the ability he can listen to it.”

“But if there is magic everywhere then how can you know if there is something wrong or that it’s from different time?” asked Matthew.

“It feels a little like a wave in science. When someone has obvious magical abilities it’s amplified. When someone uses magic it changes its wavelength, vibrates or act in any unnatural way. If there is poor unfortunate soul that doesn’t have control over its magic or misuses it, the disturbance is so great it can be felt through time.”

“Wait a minute!” Alfred almost shouted. “Everyone can use magic?” His face was lit with excitement.

Arthur smiled. “Every living being – that includes plants, animals and creatures that are unseen to most humans. But yes, everyone has some magic within. It’s usually locked away and a small amount.”

“And you can unlock it? I could use magic, like fireballs?” Alfred was shooting questions barely containing his excitement.

“I can unlock it for you, if you want. It’s a little enhancement spell. Although I’m afraid that none of you would be capable of casting any real spell. Mostly you would discover one or two new abilities.”

Alfred instantly became gloomier. “I wanted to fly on a real broom,” he whined.

Arthur looked at him fondly. “Maybe that’s going to be your ability. I can release the magic you’re suppressing in couple of seconds, if that’s ok with you,” he said.

They all agreed, although Gilbert and Matthew more reluctantly than Alfred.

Arthur closed his eyes and began muttering in language they didn’t know. Lights in the room dimmed a little, but there was now blast, no colourful sparkles that Alfred was expecting. After mere ten seconds Arthur opened his eyes and said, “It’s done.”

“What?” Alfred whined. “But I don’t feel any different.”

“Me neither,” said Gilbert and Matthew nodded in agreement.

“It would be polite to say thank you,” Arthur remarked with a scowl. “You aren’t feeling anything special because you must discover your abilities yourselves. Don’t fret over it, it comes natural. You will know when they’re going to be of use and it will be obvious what it is.”

“That’s so lame,” Alfred said.

“And what are Missy’s abilities then?” Gilbert smirked, showing his disbelief in whole situation.

Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow and answered with stoic look. “I have you know that I would shoot you right through that red eye of yours. While you would be running. And I would have my eyes closed.”

“Wow, feisty,” Gilbert whistled.

“So it’s really possible that I can fly?” Alfred asked not bothered by Gilbert’s words.

“Certainly, you would have to experiment a little on it. The fastest way would be putting you under condition when that skill is needed but I don’t recommend you jumping out of a window,” said Arthur. “You should start by intense thinking of it.”

“Yeah,” Gilbert smirked. “Like that wouldn’t be a problem for Al.”

“Gil! Be nice!” Matthew scolded the boy. “We’re guests.”

“Well, since you aren’t real intruders in my house I suppose it can’t hurt to let you stay for a while,” Arthur said standing up from the couch. “Now if you excuse us we have to refresh ourselves and change into… more appropriate clothes.” He looked at Elizabeth’s muddied pants with disapproval.

She rolled her eyes and stood up. “Honestly, Arthur! You really are an old man. One day you’re going to realize that there is actually time and place on this planet that a woman can wear what she wants. It’s not anything obscene. Be glad that I’m not running around naked.” She walked out of the door not sparing them another glance.

Arthur was blushing furiously and apparently lost his ability to speak. He turned to boys and said, “Well, make yourself comfortable but please do not rearrange my collections,” and with that he left.

They said together in silence for a moment, trying to get what was said to them in last hour.

“This is unbelievable,” Matthew whispered.

“Amazing,” Alfred said with awe.

“And I say it’s pure bullshit,” Gilbert said sternly, looking at the other two. They stared at him as he ranted on. “You can’t say that you believe in all those magic shit he was trying to sell us! I bet they both are just crazy lunatics that have run away from a madhouse!”

“It’s magic dude! You saw yourself that this manor appeared out of nowhere,” Alfred argued.

“And he said that it’s nothing weird that we do not feel the effects of his spell,” Matthew said.

“Because there’s _no_ spell! You can’t be fooled by that!” Gilbert was almost shouting with anger. “I don’t believe in any of these. Not in magic houses, time-travelling, super abilities and certainly not in disappearing people! If I don’t see proof I won’t believe in any of that!”

There was a sound of clearing one’s throat from the door. There stood Arthur with one hand on his hip. “If you do not believe; then let me show you,” he smirked.


	6. Be careful what you wish for

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which Gilbert doesn't know history.

They all gathered in the library, standing around in a small circle. On one side there stood Arthur with Elizabeth, who now was dressed in dress similar to one at her portrait. They were facing the three boys that still could not believe how they had found themselves in this manor.

“Are you sure about this, Gil?” Matthew whispered to an angry looking albino who was standing next to him. “What if this all is real and he won’t like that you are making fun of him and send us to another dimension or worse?”

“Chill out Birdie. You really are talkative when you’re stressed. Nothing is going to happen because they bluffing. There is no magic,” Gilbert answered to him in whisper.

“What’s going on?” asked Alfred.

“Your friend is being sceptical. He won’t believe in anything that I’m saying unless he sees it with his own eyes. And I’m in eminently good humour today which means I’m happy to provide the proof he finds satisfactory,” Arthur said with a smirk.

“Time-travel,” said Gilbert. He looked in Arthur’s eyes with challenge written on his face.

Arthur shrugged like it did not surprise him. “When?”

Gilbert looked surprised with man’s confidence and was a little taken aback. Nevertheless, he did not need a lot of time to think about his destination. “To the time when Prussia and Teutonic Knights were around.”

“Let’s go then,” Arthur said and there was strange glint in his eyes. He raised both of his hands to shoulder-level and began muttering words they did not know.

Before they could react or ask him when they are going to travel, the bright green light blinded the whole group. They felt a pull in their stomachs, as if something was dragging them to the floor. The light began to swirl in front of them, forming some kind of portal and the pull was re-directed inside of it. They could not shift their limbs as they had begun to move with the light, swirling in the same pattern, as their bodies seemed to dissolve like a liquid.

As soon as the feeling stopped and they could definitely state they were in solid states again, the light disappeared and they found themselves a few feet above the ground. They felt one on top of another forming a pile of bodies.

Alfred, being on top of the dog pile; quickly rolled off a whining Matthew and brushed off his pants. Looking around he noticed Arthur and Elizabeth standing nearby. It seemed both of them landed perfectly on their feet and were now watching in amusement the spectacle of Gilbert trying to push off Matthew who still was in a dazed state.

They were standing in the middle of forest road, one that he had seen in the mountains that were less visited by tourists. There were no pavements, no cobblestone and no sight of living soul beside them. Heat was pouring from the sky and the air was dry and suffocating. Tussling Gilbert and Matthew were scuffing up the dirt from the road.

“So where are we now?” Alfred asked.

Arthur answered that, looking at the sky with sad smile. “It’s the year 1260. We are in Prussia, just as Teutonic Knights are finishing their job at Christianising the pagans. Or, that’s what it means in language of those lovely warrior monks. The fact is that they’re currently taking over the whole land, forcing natives to disclaim their belief in all fairy and magical folk. As for where you are right now – you’re standing on one of main roads leading from Prussians through Skalvians to Lithuanians.”

Alfred looked at him, amazed by Arthur’s historical knowledge. He thought it was given, considering the time-travelling life style the man was leading. But when he looked at his face he could not think about anything else, except that he would do anything to try to change the history in order to save those fairies that Arthur strongly believed in, just so he could make that sadness on his face disappear.

When he opened his mouth to say something that could possibly cheer Arthur up, he was interrupted by Gilbert’s moaning, who finally managed to get up from the ground.

“Not awesome ride, you know,” he pointed out, trying to clean his hair out of dirt. “So we are or we aren’t in Prussia’s kingdom?”

“Both,” Arthur answered. “Prussia won’t become a kingdom in another few hundred years. Basically, in current time they are bunch of tribes that were constantly attacked by Teutonic Knights and the name _Prussia_ refers to land they are on.”

Gilbert grimaced. “So you just tricked me?”

Arthur rose one of his eyebrows and smirked. “You have to be more specific in your wishes. Besides, you wanted proof that my magic is real. Isn’t that enough?” he gestured to their surroundings.

Gilbert hung his head and shoved his hands inside jeans’ pockets in defeat. “I guess so,” he mumbled.

“So what do you guys want to do?” asked Elizabeth. “I think first we need to find someone who can point us to the nearest town; because it seems to me we’re in middle of nowhere. Again,” she glared at Arthur.

“Excuse me!” he argued back. “I could transport us in the middle of the town! We would be instantly accused of witchcraft and attacked.” He looked away from them and mumbled, “You don’t know how hard is to point even an exact year.”

Alfred came closer to him and patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” he smiled at his blushing face. “I’m sure the closest town is not so far away and then we can go and sightsee some awesome things, like knights’ tournaments or a blacksmith doing a gigantic sword!”

They started going along the road. They did not say much, mostly because after half an hour of walking they were starting to get tired, as the heat was unbearable. Alfred was whipping his glasses that became wet from his sweat, when he heard noise from the forest.

“Guys, did you hear that?” he asked the others but they seemed to be ignoring him.

They didn’t walk another few meters before an arrow came out of nowhere and impacted the ground just where Matthew was going to put his foot down.

“Wha-“ Gilbert was trying to say something but he didn’t finish the sentence as over a dozen riders surrounded them in a semicircle. All of them had some kind of weapon pointed at them. One of the riders moved forward. He had brown, shoulder-length hair and was wearing green tunic with chain mail over it and a semi-helmet on his head.

“ _Kas tu toks?_ ” he said pointing his sword at Gilbert, who was standing in front of his horse.

“What? What the hell is going on?!” Gilbert screamed with cockiness, but it was plain obvious for his wide-eyed face and trembling that was being shown to everyone, that he was terrified.

The man furrowed his eyebrows and pushed his sword forward, that it was almost touching Gilbert. “ _Aš nesuprantu. Kas tu toks?_ ” he repeated.

“Oh, bloody hell! I’ve forgotten!” Arthur gasped in sudden realisation. He moved one hand in their direction, said one spell and they were enveloped in bright blue flash, which disappeared as quickly as it came.

The leader’s eyes widened, as he turned his head in Arthur’s direction. He seemed to quickly making some decision as he looked at him.

“Get the warlock,” he commanded the man standing near Arthur.

Within a second the man was next to Arthur. Before anyone could react he hit Arthur with a grip of his sword in the back of the head. Alfred held his breath in panic, as he watched the only man that could save them from this situation collapse to the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?!” screamed Alfred.

“I’m taking you as prisoners,” the man said and with that all of them found themselves being manhandled by the warriors.

Alfred was trying his best to run away from sword-wielding man in front of him but did not notice the one that was behind him. The last thing he saw was Eliza viciously punching one of the warriors lying on the ground, before something heavy hit him on the head and he passed out.

* * *

 

He woke up with heavy headache. When he opened his eyes all he could see was darkness. He closed them and opened again. Nothing was different. He felt panic crawling up his spine.

_Oh My God, I’m blind_ , he thought.

From the feeling of coldness on his back he could guess he was lying on stone floor. He tried to stand up when the wave of pain hit him, feeling like his brain would split apart. He moaned out loud rubbing his temples.

“Al? Are you awake?” a voice asked in the darkness.

“Eliza? Is that you?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s me. We were worried. You weren’t waking for really long time. He must have hit you pretty hard. Are you ok?” she asked.

Alfred tried to see her in the darkness but there was nothing. He felt his throat starting to get constricted and he had to fight down a sob. “I-I’m b-blind!” he whined.

“Oh for God sake! You’re not fucking blind Alfred!” Gilbert’s voice was sharp and angry. “We’re all bouncing from the walls like fucking rubber balls! And there’s…” metal clang was heard in the room, “…no…” another one, “…fucking…” and another, “…way OUT!” he finished gasping.

“Gilbert, please stop punching the bars,” Eliza pleaded.

“Where are we?” Alfred asked them, looking in their direction, or where he thought they were.

“We’re in some kind of prison cell,“ she said. “Given the times we are in and the fact that there is no single ray of light reflected on those stones I would say were in a dungeon, near or beneath the ground.”

Gilbert snorted. “And given the way how fucking damp this place is I would say it would be obvious that were beneath the ground,” he mocked her. “Come on! This is so unawesome to be stuck with rats down here.”

When rats were mentioned Alfred started to feel chills running down his spine. Almost like little pawns. He quickly stood up. Not that he was scared. Heroes don’t get scared by simple rats. They are just not exactly… cuddlesome.

Eliza and Gilbert already started to argue. “So figure something _awesome_ to get us out of here,” she snapped.

Alfred started walking along the walls, feeling stones with his hands.

“And I thought you were the know-it-all proper lady here,” Gilbert mocked her.

Out of nowhere stone wall ended and Alfred could feel cold metal bars beneath his hands. He pulled them toward himself put they would not budge.

Eliza was furious now. “I’m actually trying to get us out of here not just trash-talking everyone! And everyone with brain above a monkey would know these things!”

Alfred put his hand between two bars. _Maybe we could sneak out through them_ , he thought. He leaned more of his weight on the bars. There was just enough of space so he could put his arm, but nothing more.

“How would I know?!” Gilbert was shouting now. “Your lover-boy is a fucking magical encyclopaedia! Maybe you’ve caught something from him! And monkeys are really smart animals!”

_Maybe they could be bend_ , Alfred thought, still holding the bars. He tried to push two of them apart. They did not move. He put more strength to it and still not a thing. He took a deep breath and tried to focus his thought on his strength, just like the real superheroes do, before he pushed again.

“W-WHAT?!” Eliza’s voice reached a higher octave. “How dare you?! He’s not my _lover-boy_! You have no idea what…!” Loud metal sound resonated through their cell.

Both of them looked in the direction of the bars, interrupting their argument. They stared into the darkness, alarmed of anything that could happen in any minute.

“Guys,” Alfred said with quiet voice. “I think I’ve broken us free.”

* * *

 

Matthew stared at little castle ahead of him. He was terrified and lost in place that was not even in the same year as he should be. He was hiding in bushes on the edge of a nearby forest. Not that he needed those bushes for hiding at all.

He raised his hand and looked at it again. Or at least he thought he was looking at it, because in place where his hand should be was nothing. He was still staring at the castle.

He sighed resigned. It started when they were attacked by those raiders. One moment he was thinking how he wished that they would leave him alone and did not notice him, and another one he was seeing everyone being dragged away and leaving him behind. He didn’t know the cause until he looked down at his body and saw that it disappeared!

His situation right now was not bright and funny. He was still invisible, for he had no idea how to reverse the process, he did not know where the rest were taken, and he had no idea how to get them out from wherever they’re being kept.

_I knew we shouldn’t have entered that mansion_ , he thought and sighed again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go :) I'm sorry for any historical inaccuracy that happens in this chapter. I've tried to make it as truthful as my history textbook, my knowledge and aunt Wiki let me. The situation in this or next chapter is not any significant point in history, just merely based on situation between lands during that time.
> 
> The historical facts here are: the actual kingdom of Prussia wasn't existing until the beginning of 18th century, so what we see in Hetalia portrayed as Gilbert is either Teutonic Order or the bunch of tribes that were living on land called Prussia. They were cooperating a little when it came to common enemy, like kingdom (or duchy, depends on time you choose) of Poland and Lithuanian tribes, but they weren't one. They were being attacked in order to convert them to Christianity since 9th century, but the tipping point was 13th century, were attacks from Teutonic Knights were so drastic, that a large amount of Prussian population fled to either Lithuanians or Polish Duchy of Mazovia (yes, their former enemies). 1283 is the official date that is known as final conquer of Prussia lands by the Order. My guess is 1260 is not the year that Gilbert was thinking of - almost conquered Prussians, being forced into German culture, and Order merely starting their reign on region.
> 
> As for translation of Lithuanian here - it was done by courtesy of Internet, so forgive me any mistakes and do not fear to correct me:
> 
> Kas tu toks? - Who are you?
> 
> Aš nesuprantu. - I don't understand.
> 
> That's it for ridiculously long Author's Note ;)


	7. Curiosity killed the cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which it's Gilbert's fault.

They had been walking blindly in the dark corridors, feeling the walls made of stones and trying to find the exit. Neither of them argued much after the shock of breaking out, thanks to Alfred’s newly founded strength. It turned out that what Arthur said was true – they did have previously unknown to them abilities, or at least Alfred had.

Alfred himself was still in some kind of shock. He knew he was fairly strong, mainly due to many sports he practised, but he would not count himself as a Hercules. But if almost mangled metal bars of their prison cell were any evidence maybe he should think of himself as that. Clearly there was some magic involved, but it wasn’t like he did not contribute to his new awesome superpower.

They were walking for good few minutes since they’ve got out, but still were surrounded by darkness. Luckily they also hadn’t come across anybody, so that meant that their captors were still convinced they were in their cell.

“Ouch!” Gilbert screamed from ahead. “Hey, guys! I think I’ve found stairs!”

“I’m not a guy,” Eliza hissed. “Try to climb those stairs and not fall down with that big head of yours.”

“You’re basically a dude,” Gilbert’s laugh was muffled as he was climbing up the stairs.

When Alfred finally reached the top of the stairs he was almost blinded by light. His eyes were trying to adapt for a while and when he opened them once more he could see their surroundings. It looked like they really had been in dungeons, because when he looked out the window he saw that they were almost on the ground level. He turned around to say that to Eliza when he noticed another thing.

“Where is Mattie and Arthur?” he asked.

“Huh? How do I know?” Gilbert snapped still covering his eyes.

“They were not in the same cell with us, if you’re asking about that,” Eliza said.

“Are you sure? It was really dark and they could be lying on the ground unconscious like me.” Alfred started to get worried.

“No way,” said Gilbert. “We groped and felt around anything that could be lying on that floor and Birdie was not there,” he smirked evilly.

Eliza winced. “Disgusting,” she said.

“Come one, you were groping around yourself.” He pocked her in the ribs.

She swatted his hand away and turned her attention to Alfred. “You thought they were with us?” she asked, mildly surprised.

Alfred rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I just thought that they were quiet and all that stuff.” He turned to Gilbert. “You know how Mattie can be.”

“Yeah, I know,” Gilbert grimaced. “You’ve just forgotten about him as always.”

“And trust me, Arthur is not shy or quiet person,” Eliza added.

Alfred hung his head lower. “Ok, ok, I get it.” He shuffled his feet a little. “So what we are going to do?” he asked.

Eliza leant out of the window. “It’s not high, and we can climb down from here and run behind that granary. From then we should be able to sneak around to find your brother and Arthur,” she pointed far away.

“It would be a long run,” Alfred noticed. “And there is nothing here that we could rope down on.”

“That’s not going to be a problem,” she said and grabbed the hem of her dress. In one swift motion she ripped the fabric off.

Alfred turned his sight away in the same time he heard Gilbert shouting “I knew you were dude”. He was holding his stomach and laughing. When he stopped to get a breath he said to her with a red face “You made awesome me cry from laughter! What the fuck is this?”

Alfred squinted in Eliza’s direction, ready to close his eyes if she was naked, but he saw that she was wearing tight breeches.

“What is your problem?” she hissed in Gilbert’s direction while she was tying knots on the fabric that was ripped off.

“Why the hell are you wearing pants under your skirt?” Gilbert was trying to compose himself but laughter was winning.

“Did you expect me to actually wear dress when we could be attacked any minute?” she sneered and tied one end of the makeshift rope to the railing of the stairs. “And if I did not wear it Arthur would be grumbling the whole day.” She threw the other end of the rope out of the window.

“Ladies first,” Gilbert smirked and gestured to the window with his hand with mocking bow.

Eliza rolled her eyes and with quick jump she was out and climbing down. Gilbert and Alfred followed her. When they were all on the ground they checked for nearby guards. When there was nobody near, they dashed to the granary.

“So what we are doing now?” asked breathless Alfred.

“We need some weapons,” said Gilbert. “Maybe in those stables would be some knives and all that stuff.”

They’d agreed that it was their best shot. As they were slowly skulking to the stables Alfred thought how much surreal all these seemed. He felt like a character in one of his games. They’ve got to get out, beat the bad guys and save the princess. Ok, maybe that last part wasn’t exactly the same, or they’d been lying to him all his life and princesses actually had huge, bushy eye-brows and were males. But aside that he was pretty excited, feeling like a spy on secret mission.

Everything was even more exciting when he thought about his new superpower. He still could not get used to that idea, forgetting and remembering every other second. Maybe he had more of them.

_Maybe laser sight! Or thunder from my fingers!_ he thought excitedly. He let his thoughts wander more when he asked himself more serious question.

_Can we die here? I’ve never asked that Arthur guy this. Or do we get to be revived or healed?_ he pondered, his mind drifting once again to video games.

They went around the barn, trying to find back entrance, but the only way to get inside seemed to be from the front. They chose to hide behind sheaves of hay as soon as they were not shielded by wooden walls. Alfred felt his nose starting to itch from dusty air surrounding them. To Gilbert’s disappointment there was no stack of weapons left behind and waiting for them, not to mention anything useful beside a couple of pitchforks.

“This is useless,” Eliza whispered when Gilbert grabbed one of them.

“Better this than nothing,” he responded giving her and Alfred another pair.

They started to retreat from the stables when they heard voices.

“Tell prince Taurys that I will soon be joining them at the feast. I have to retrieve a gift for our Prussian host from my sack,” deep voice boomed behind the corner.

They dove back behind the hay, holding their breaths, just a second before the man walked in the stables. Alfred peeked from behind the sheaf, scratching his itchy nose and saw blond man with shoulder-length hair. He approached one of chestnut colour horses. After searching for a while in his robes he reached with his hand to horse’s mouth and handed him a handful of something that Alfred could not see.

“Good pony,” the man said in tender voice. “I’ve got you some snack, because they say I can’t take you to the feast.” There was audible disappointment in his voice. “I don’t get it, the hall is big enough.”

Gilbert turned to Alfred with slight smile. “I don’t think this _tough_ guy will harm us,” he sneered.

They crouched behind the man, trying to sneak out. As they were moving away slowly Alfred stopped abruptly and grasped his nose.

_Oh no, no, no! I can’t hold it_ , he thought and sneezed loudly.

A few things happened at once. The man turned around and within a second he was pointing his short sword at Alfred. Gilbert tackled Al and stood before the man with pitchfork, ready to fight. Eliza screamed “RUN!” at top of her lungs and grabbed Alfred by his shirt, forcing him to stand up and follow her as she dragged him out of the stables.

He heard metal noises and when he turned his head he saw Gilbert crossing the teeth of pitchfork with sword’s blade. With swift movement he pushed it away and tore the sword from his opponent’s hand. The man landed flat on the ground and when he tried to stand up, Gilbert was already waiting for him with pitchfork pointed at his chest.

Before any of them could react they were engulfed by darkness.

* * *

 

Alfred tried to pick himself up from the floor he was lying on, but found soft red carpet extremely alluring.

“What the fuck was that,” grumbled Gilbert from the floor near Alfred’s foot.

“That was the universe stopping you from completely changing history,” said Arthur, coming into the room.

Alfred stood up, noticing they were back in Arthur’s library. He collapsed on the nearest chair, feeling completely exhausted.

“Where have you been?” he asked Arthur, taking notice of his scruffy appearance and bruises that were visible through cuts in his clothes.

“Here and there,” Arthur shrugged. “I was trying to find you after I’ve got out from my captors. Which one of you tried to alter history?” he asked, eyeing Alfred carefully.

“What?” Alfred was confused.

“Surely, you must find it strange to be transported back so suddenly. Were you not thinking of the consequences of your actions?” Arthur asked, raising one of his eye-brows in mild surprise.

“Well…” Alfred scratched the back of his head, looking pleadingly at Gilbert in.

Arthur sighed. “Just tell me what you were doing before the travel. And for God’s sake! Elizabeth! What are you wearing?” he snapped.

She just rolled her eyes and walked out of the room without saying anything. Arthur stared dumbfounded for a second, when he turned back at looked at Alfred anticipating. With Gilbert’s help Alfred managed to tell whole story, from raider’s attack to their escape from the stables.

Arthur looked at them thoughtfully. “You must understand that no one actually knows how time and its paths works. Some people came with the idea of so-called _butterfly effect_ , which can be explained that everything that is being done in the past, even the flutter of small butterfly, has an effect on how the future will go.”

“Like a tsunami from the wind that was caused from his wings?” Alfred asked, feeling rather proud that he recognised the idea.

“Yes, like a tsunami,” Arthur continued, “although the name is quite beautiful I’m afraid it has nothing to do with how time really is working. You see, when we travel back or forward in time, we always cause some changes. Some of them we recognise themselves as small and irrelevant, like destroying grass, which in normal circumstances would never be stepped on. However there may be some aspects of changes that what is and what we think is important, may be quite different. For example, if we were to kill simple servant, that would not contribute to life of any other being, nor would his children, we would not change much. The servant would be killed. On other hand, if we were to kill a person whose life has a link to other lives, or his descendants would have, for example,” he looked at Gilbert, “an important ambassador, heading to feast celebrating treaty between three lands, the universe would stop us from doing that.”

Gilbert was wide-eyed and shocked. “I wasn’t trying to kill him! I was just trying to push him away!” he defended himself.

“But if we are here you were about to.” Arthur looked at him sadly. “I’m not trying to accuse you, just stating the facts. And the fact is that you were thrown back by the universe itself,” he concluded.

“I really wasn’t trying to kill him.” Gilbert’s voice died down.

Alfred was quite confused by Arthur’s explanation but could not stop from feeling uneasy, like he had forgotten about something. He looked at Gilbert, who was staring at the floor feeling depressed and then to Arthur, who was lost in his own thoughts. He though back to Eliza and then it clicked.

“We all came back from the past, right? No matter if we were separated?” he asked Arthur.

“Yes, as you can see,” Arthur gestured to himself.

Alfred started to feel the anger dwelling up inside of him. “So where is my brother?”

Arthur seemed surprised by this question, as if the thought of Matthew getting lost never occurred to him. “I’m sure he’s somewhere in the house,” he said.

“No shit! We’ve lost Birdie!” Gilbert was awaken by this conversation.

“Everyone was transported back to this exact room.” Alfred tried to remain calm, but was failing miserably. “So I’m gonna ask you again – where is my brother?”

“Al, I’m here,” said quiet voice next to him.

“Who’s said that?!” Alfred jumped in his spot.

“It’s me, Matthew,” the voice said. “I’ve been here since we all came back.”

“Birdie, where are you?” Gilbert asked the air.

“I’m here. Look.” One of the books that was laying on a table was now floating through the air. “I’ve sort of became invisible and can’t turn it off.”

“Cool bro!” Alfred shouted excitedly. “That must be your superpower!”

“Arthur, can you help me?” Matthew asked.

“You have to help yourself, lad.” Arthur smiled. “Just think how much you want to be noticed, try to focus on that. It should help.”

Not saying much more Arthur stood up from his chair and headed into the kitchen. He still wasn’t sure if he made a good choice allowing the others to travel with him, but he was God damn sure he needed a cup of tea.


	8. Of boys who would not grow up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which they talk.

Arthur was sitting on top of the stairs in entrance hall. He was still wearing his tattered robes that he wore when he was captured. In one hand he was holding steaming cup of tea.

“Why are you sitting here?” a voice behind him asked. Arthur turned around and saw that it was Alfred who approached him.

“And why are you asking?” he asked in return.

“You don’t seem like a type to sit on the ground. More like stuffy pillows on a coach type.” Alfred smiled at him.

“I like to sit here at times.” Alfred sat down next to him. “When you look from here at certain time the light that goes through windows is reflected by every little speck in the air.” He gestured ahead himself and true to his words there were rays of light that seemed to dance before their eyes.

“Doesn’t this mean that you need to clean this place if you have so much dust in the air,” Alfred laughed.

Arthur cocked his head but did not leave his eyes from the scene before him. “I think it looks more like pixie dust,” he smiled.

“You’re weird old man,” Alfred said but not without a trace of fondness in his voice.

“I’m not so old,” Arthur snapped. “It’s you who’s wet behind your ears.”

“Oh really?” Alfred mocked Arthur’s accent. “You talk like my grandfather or worse, so don’t give me this _I’m not old_ talk. I’m almost eighteen years old, the prime of my life, while you talk like you are from another century.” He stuck out his tongue at Arthur, whose expression was varying from surprise to outrage.

“Because I am from another century,” Arthur hissed. “And I’ll have you know that I’m actually 23.” His ears began to turn deep shade of red.

This time it was Alfred turn to get surprise. “Seriously?! I thought you were older.

Arthur sighed, calming himself. “And I’d thought you were younger. Obviously we both have deceiving appearances.”

“So we’re even? You’re not going to explode from anger and turn me into ugly small creature with your magic?” Alfred smiled at Arthur, extending his hand.

“Yes Alfred, we’re even,” Arthur said, shaking offered hand. “And I do not go around throwing spells at every being that angers me.” He paused for a second. “Mainly because I would have to turn half of the planet,” he said with a smirk.

“You can be scary, you know,” Alfred said. “Anyway, I came here to ask you to help Mattie, ‘coz he’s starting to panic really badly. It’s been like fifteen minutes already and he only made his head visible. Which is hilarious, if you asked me, but I’ve got to get him home with whole body, you know?” he laughed despite his brother’s situation.

“If that’s what you wanted to ask me, then the answer is still no,” Arthur said. “It’s not that I can’t or don’t want to, but it would be better if your brother learn to control his ability. I won’t be around you every time he becomes invisible,” he looked at him with his sharp gaze, which Alfred thought could slice somebody.

“I get it,” he said and they sat a moment in silence. “Can I stay here with you? I don’t really want to go back to a panicking Mattie and moping around Gilbert and you seem like a nice company, even if little grumpy one,” he smiled and poked Arthur’s arm.

“You’re an annoying brat, you know?” Arthur leaned to other side, away from Alfred.

“Hey! I thought we discussed this!” Alfred laughed. “So~,” he began, what’s the deal with you being older than pyramids and not being over thirty?”

“I was born in 18th century, started travelling when I was seventeen and somehow I’ve ended up in this time.”

“And what about your family? Don’t you miss them? Why you did not come back to your time instead of this?”

“You ask too many questions at once,” Arthur said. “And private ones.” He looked at Alfred carefully. “But very well, you are here for some reason I’ve yet to discover. I can as well answer your question if this will fulfil your greedy questions.” He smiled.

“Hey! I’m not greedy!” Alfred protested. “And what do you mean by that? I’m here for a reason? What reason?” he leaned closer to Arthur with rising curiosity.

Arthur looked at the ceiling. “You see, when I created this house, and I use create not build for a reason, I used my magic to every little detail here. That means that every tiling was attached to the roof by magic and the very tilling itself was also created by magic. The same could be said about insides. I won’t say it was easy and nice job; it has cost me a vast amount of energy and exhausted me beyond my imagination. But it was worst every minute to create something that I could finally call home. As it turned later, by creating everything from and by magic the manor itself has developed some kind of personality. At times it’s manifesting itself by a cup of tea out of nowhere in really cloudy and gloomy morning, just to cheer me up. At other times it may bring some new faces inside, for a purpose I still don’t know but I’m assuming is with good intentions to my and Eliza’s well-being.

“What are you saying?” Alfred looked shocked. “Nobody brought me here. I’ve brought Gil, invisible Mattie, and I, here myself.”

“And yet you have said earlier that you saw the manor with your own eyes,” Arthur responded with calm voice. “Do you want to know why it’s so special? I’ve made all of this invisible to every human being, so that they would leave me alone and did not disturb me. And yet, here you come, claiming to see this manor and causing your friends to see it too. It’s either your own power, which I’m afraid is false, as it would mean you’re more powerful than I am, or it’s the manor’s _decision_ to bring you here.”

“I don’t get it,” Alfred said. “Billions of people pass your house every day and none of them got chose. Why me?” he asked.

“First of all, it’s definitely not billions. You shouldn’t use such an exaggeration easily,” Arthur scowled. “And as I’ve said already, I don’t know why you are able to see it. It could be something with your relation to me, it could be something you did yourself. My guess is we will find out if you stay longer. If you, of course, are willing to stay longer,” he looked thoughtfully at Alfred.

“I don’t know,” Alfred said with cocky smile. “I don’t know if I can put my brother to such dangerous situations. And you still haven’t answered any of my questions.”

Arthur snorted. “Oh don’t be ridiculous! I doesn’t have anything to do with your brother. You’re too self-centred and foolish for that.”

“And what do you know about that? Bet you were snobbish only child, little lord with rich parents and servants jumping around,” Alfred mocked.

“Actually I have, no I had,” Arthur corrected himself, “five brothers. Four older ones, so no, I was neither only child nor the oldest one.” He looked ahead sadly, avoiding Alfred’s stare.

Alfred thought this was one of those times that he should refrain from mocking or laughing at somebody, so he sat quietly for a moment. He thought how he would feel if Mattie was living a century away from him. “Do you miss them?” he asked.

“There are times when I hate the very thought of them and there are times when I wonder what they are doing with their lives,” he answered.

Alfred felt this answer was really vague and could not stop himself from prying. “So you don’t visit them in time or something?”

Arthur laughed ironically. “Considering we parted in quite terrible manner, when I practically had to flee from my town since they had set against me whole village including local pastor, I don’t think I could stop myself from cursing them out. Quite literally, I’m afraid. Although I do miss my younger brother, Peter. He was annoying little brat, a little like you,” he smiled sadly at Alfred, “but I was quite fond of him, I must admit.”

“Then why don’t you go to see him?” Alfred asked. “Or bring him with you?”

“I did, actually. Then I have kind of… lost him.” Arthur looked clearly uncomfortable talking about this topic.

“What do you mean? How can you lost someone?” Alfred pried, oblivious to other’s discomfort.

Arthur sighed, taking his time in answering a question that were making him uncomfortable. “He came with me, when we left our house. He was so fascinated with magic and everything that came with it that he almost begged me to take him. I was quite vain and greedy for praise at the time so I took him. It was before I’ve met Elizabeth. We travelled from time to time, not trying to help anyone, just enjoying the world. He wanted to see pyramids – we went to ancient Egypt to see them being built. He wanted to see Rome – we went to time when Nero was reigning. I liked to show-off my abilities and he was a child that wanted to see new things and did not took no for an answer. It was win-win on both sides. And then the pirates happened.”

“That red coat in one of your rooms?” Alfred was more and more interested in the story with every word Arthur spilled, especially when it turned out to have a proof laying in one of the rooms he visited before.

“Yes, the same one. It’s my coat,” Arthur admitted in serious voice.

“Yours? Wow! It’s so cool!” Alfred exclaimed with awe.

“It was,” Arthur said with small smile and continued his story. “One of those times Peter wanted to see real pirates. Like always, I was eager to prove that I can do anything so I took him to the times historians describe as Golden Age of Piracy. He did not want to just see it, he wanted to experience it, so I found us a captain that was willing to take a little child like him. And that was the moment everything turned wrong,” he grimaced.

“I fell in love with that live,” Arthur continued. “We sailed together for almost a year. Companionship, sense of adventure, the nature of the sea, bloodshed – I loved it all, and frankly speaking I can say that I was good at it. There, nobody was questioning my abilities. Quite contrary, they were glad they had me on ship, as I was able to do things others had problems with. And there was of course the Kraken thing,” he smiled fondly, like he was describing his pet.

Alfred had hard time believing in the story. “I can’t imagine you being a pirate, with all these teas and stiffness,” he said.

“Stuff it,” Arthur snapped. “I was great times and I think I’ve got carried away with this story.”

“No, I’m sorry. I won’t say anything more.” Alfred made a gesture of zipping imaginary zip on his mouth. “What happened next?”

“I thought you weren’t going to say anything.” Arthur quirked his eyebrow, but continued. “Like I was saying, the lifestyle that we led was alluring. It came to a point when I took Peter with me and became captain myself. In all these chaos we came to an island when my brother got himself kidnapped by some savages in a jungle. I think I lingered for too long with decision if pay them with gold or kill all of them off, because when we got to their village it turned out that Peter was neither in harm or kept hostage. In fact he was bouncing with happiness with local kids.” Arthur smiled sourly. “He absolutely refused to come back with me, threw quite a fit there if I have to say. He screamed at me that I took his childhood and tried to raise him for a murderer.”

“And what did you do?” asked Alfred quietly.

“I left.”

“But you said he was a little kid!” Alfred protested, outraged by Arthur’s behaviour. He did not expect this from the man that was sitting next to him. He seemed more like a mother hen type.

“You forget that I can go back in time to the exact moment I left him.” Arthur said bitterly. “I’ve just needed to cool my head off. Soon after our argument I’ve decided to do something more helpful with my abilities, hence I’ve started to find people with magical troubles. Then I met Elizabeth and was busy with her problem for a while. I guess I needed a break from babysitting for a while,” he sighed.

Alfred looked carefully at Arthur who turned back to staring ahead. “You still miss him. I would miss Mattie even if he would curse me out in front of savages,” he stated.

“Maybe,” Arthur said. “Maybe I’ll visit him soon.”

They sat for a moment in silence, both pondering about their conversation. Alfred has got a feeling it wasn’t a common thing for Arthur to speak so openly of his private matters in front of people he barely knew. He knew himself that he was quite popular guy, one that triggered this behaviour in others, to be more open themselves, but he still felt a little special.

Mainly because of that proud feeling he could not restrain himself for prying more. “So what’s the business with Lizzy you had to do? I thought you were old friends or something.”

Arthur shook his head with disbelief, but it did not stop or hide a little smile that he showed. “We are friends, although at the beginning she was just another person I’d tried to help. But I’m not in a position to tell you that story. I’m afraid you’d need to ask her directly.”

Alfred snorted with disappointment and stood up. “Yeah, sure,” he faked indifference, shrugging. “I’m going to check if Mattie is finally whole again. You go back to your staring, old man,” he teased, turning around and walking away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many feelings! I think this chapter is a little inconsistent, but I had difficulty with balancing drama in Arthur's dialogue with Alfred's childish behaviour. I had a feeling the would go over the edge if I don't hold them on leash and we would have weeping murderous Arthur and whining for hamburgers Alfred who's not sure about his own sexuality -.- I swear those characters have a life of their own in this story.


	9. French perfume

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which there are swords.

When Arthur returned to the library he found that nobody was there anymore. He searched his house and found them in the next room, Gilbert messing with his music records again and the rest of the group sitting on the couch. Matthew, visible again but still slightly panicked, was chewing silently on a cookie, while Alfred was telling Elizabeth some story, gesticulating excitedly as she nodded with a gentle smile.

Arthur approached the couch, trying to not attract any attention, when Alfred turned his head in his direction and smiled broadly.

“Artie! Look, Mattie is back whole again,” he said, pointing to his brother. Matthew averted his eyes, looking like he had no contact with real world. Alfred seemed to not notice that and continued excitedly. “I was telling Lizzy about our football team. Turns out she doesn’t know anything about football at all! You want me to tell you about it too?” he asked.

“Her name is Elizabeth, not Lizzy, like some kind of animal,” Arthur snapped, ignoring the question.

“I don’t mind,” said Elizabeth, smiling. “It’s nice and short. It’s not much different from Eliza either, isn’t it?” she said, looking thoughtful after that.

Arthur had just snorted and crossed his arms.

“So when we go back and what are we doing next?” Alfred asked.

Arthur looked dumbfounded at him. “What do you mean? You’re not going anywhere.” He snapped. “You’ve had your fun, now it’s time for you to go home.”

“No way Grumpy Cat,” said Gilbert without taking his eyes off a record he was actually holding. “We want to see more. Do we look scared by that little adventure? Even Birdie agrees with us.”

Matthew looked at them, pulling himself out of his own mind, and answered with quiet but sure voice, “I do.”

“See?” Alfred said and the difference of voice volume levels between him and Matthew was so clear, that Arthur had to fight with urge to cover his ears. “Everybody wants to join you guys. Besides, you’ve just said that you don’t know why we are here, so maybe it’s worth keeping a hero like me around you, huh?” He pointed to himself with his thumbs and shown nearly all his teeth with his Hollywood-like smile.

With desperation Arthur turned to Elizabeth, looking for some assistance in the argument. When he saw her smiling at him he knew he had lost. “You heard them. I don’t mind,” she said, smirking a little.

Arthur sighed deeply. “Ok, you can go. But this is not going to be a sightseeing trip like last one. We actually have to help somebody.”

“Yeah, because you nearly get killed while sightseeing in New York or other cities,” Gilbert snorted.

“You know what you’re signing yourself up for,” Arthur retorted. “I need to know that you understand that this is not going to be about you having fun in a different time.”

“Ok, so what’s the plan? Who are we trying to help?” Alfred asked, trembling with anticipation like a little kid.

Arthur sat down in comfortable chair before he explained. “We’re looking for another magic user. This one is inexperienced and causing a lot of damage to clean up after. From what we have observed our guess is that he had not understood what he did at first, but he’s fast learner.”

“What is he doing that you guys can’t catch him?” Alfred asked.

“He’s also a time traveller,” Arthur answered. “He was causing trouble in his time, setting random things on fire without control, when we cornered him. When I sensed his abilities I offered him help, but I suppose we scared him off because the second he realised we were not ordinary humans he disappeared. How did he learn to skip in time in such short time, I have no idea. It took me years to get it right.”

“Maybe you just suck at it,” Gilbert mocked.

Arthur threw angered glare at him and continued. “After that he’s constantly moving, from one time to another, though I don’t know if he’s escaping from us or something else.”

“Do you know who he is?” asked Matthew.

“We’ve met him a few times,” said Eliza. “He comes from your time, a little younger thank you.”

“So what are you doing right now?” Alfred asked. “You’re running after him; trying to set a trap for him, convince him to join you, or what?”

“Of course we try to help him, not harm him,” Arthur said, outraged. “We actually know where he is in time, for he is staying in the same time-frame for last two weeks of yours - our time.”

“Is time flow different for us here and for us if we were there?” Matthew seemed disturbed by this idea.

Alfred looked at his brother and thought about his question. It occurred to him that the whole time they were staying with Arthur and Eliza he hadn’t thought about home, his parents and school. Now, when he realised that, he thought that they might have spent all this time scarred out of their minds for their sons, because almost two days passed since they walked into this manor.

“It’s hard to say, as I’ve always travelled back to exact times, not counting the flow of the time.” Arthur pondered about the answer. “And when you try to change history, it always brings you back to the same second you set out. I suppose the feeling of the time as we know it, with 24 hours for a day is the same.”

Alfred relaxed, knowing for sure that it was still the same day.

“If you really want to travel with us I suggest you all go to you homes and get a good night of sleep.” Arthur looked at tired and still shaken Matthew with an almost fatherly care. “You all must be tired from the excitements and we have a long journey ahead.”

When Alfred stepped out of the manor with Matthew by his side it was already dark. It was considerably colder than during daylight, so they bundled themselves up in their blouses and hurried to their home. He was not sure if he would manage to sleep, counting hours to the next day.

* * *

 

Gilbert walked through hall, not being noticed by anyone. He had a plan to find nice corner to sleep through night, as this manor looked fair nicer that his own house, and he was certain that Arthur, who had locked himself up in library the minute Alfred and Matthew left the house, wouldn’t notice an additional guest. He saw a light coming out of open door down the hallway and when he walked inside he saw it was another room filled with treasures, weapons and memorabilia from other centuries. In one corner stood Elizabeth, eyeing curved blade swords with ivory handles, displayed on the wall in front of her.

“Nice ones, aren’t they?” asked Gilbert, walking towards her.

“Yes, they’re quite beautiful,” she said turning her head to look at him. “Fine weaponry for fine men.”

“Or angry woman,” he smiled.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she laughed bitterly. “Ladies don’t fight, especially not with any weapons.”

Gilbert reached for two swords, handing one of them to Elizabeth. “Spar with me,” he said.

“Are you mad?” she asked, trying to look outraged but there was a look of excitement in her eyes.

“I have a feeling you’re not a _proper_ lady,” he said with a smirk and before she could response to that he swung his sword at her.

Reacting instinctively she reflected his hit. What was not instinctual was that she stepped forward and counterattacked him.

Gilbert threw his head back at laughed out loud. “See, I knew you were a bloodthirsty creature,” he mocked her.

She growled at him but her only response was another blow. They continued fighting for a few minutes. Her every blow was parried and she grew more and more frustrated, resulting in her attacks speeding up. Eventually Gilbert was forced to go into more offensive mode, but even when there were times he was on verge of losing, he was still smiling at her, which seemed to infuriate her more.

They’d danced like that for another couple of minutes when Elizabeth dived in front of him and kicking his legs she tripped him. Gilbert who was not expecting non-sword move landed with loud thud on the ground with look of utter surprise. She leaned over him pointing her sword at his chest.

“Game is over, boy,” she said with a smirk.

He looked at her and cocked his head. “I knew it was not who you really are, Eliza,” he said kindly.

She looked at him for a moment, shocked, before she threw her sword on the ground and turned on her heels and left the room. Gilbert, still lying on the floor looked at the open door with a sad smile.

* * *

 

The next day, when all absent had arrived, they had gathered inside the library. Arthur looked at all of them with thoughtful look and asked once more, “Are you perfectly sure you want to help us?”

Alfred laughed loudly. “Of course we are. Get on with it.”

Arthur glanced at Elizabeth, who to his dismay was not wearing a long skirt but pants. “Want to say something?” she asked, looking defiantly at him in return.

He didn’t answered but merely cocked his eyebrow and turned back to Alfred. “Then we shall go,” he said and all tuned silent when he began to cast his spell.

One moment they were in quiet shelter of Arthur’s manor, another they were surrounded by cacophony of noises. When everything stopped spinning Alfred looked around, only to see that he was standing on wooded deck on some kind of ship. Around them was pure chaos. Dozens of men were fighting with swords, blood spilling on the deck with every slash. He heard wheezing sound and turned around to its source. He didn’t get to see what that was, because at the same moment Arthur pulled him down by his shirt’s collar, bellowing to everybody else, “GET DOWN!”

He felt the blast on his neck and cold sweat trickled on his back. He turned to look at Arthur and felt more scared. He hoped to ask man for an explanation and seek comfort in what seemed like a dire situation, but he felt black tentacles of fear reaching further and holding tighter as he saw only confusion and shock on Arthur’s face.

“Arthur, what’s going on?” he asked, trying to sound as calm as the overwhelming clatter of swords was allowing.

“I don’t know Alfred. I’ve tried to-…” at last second Alfred noticed a man with raised sword creeping back at Arthur.

Without a second thought he lurched forward and grabbed man’s legs, tripping him in the process. When they both were on the floor, Alfred tried to punch man’s face, but he was faster. With large smirk on his face he caught Alfred’s wrist and twisted it painfully. Roaring with laughter he forced Alfred further into the floor and reached for his discarded sword. He grabbed the hilt and pushed the blade in the direction of Alfred’s ribs.

And just like Alfred reacted instinctively, Arthur reacted similarly. When he saw the scene before him he blasted the man away with small fire ball. Unfortunately it was not enough, as he tried to stand up even with the front of his clothes burning with open fire.

Arthur kneeled next to Alfred in order to check his wrist. With his back to the man he thought to be knocked out he could not see him lurching forward with his sword pointed again at Arthur.

“Behind you,” Alfred screamed and Arthur surrounded them by blue barrier, which stopped the man from reaching them. He hit it several times, each time the blade was bounced and with every hit Arthur’s shoulders shook violently.

“Do something!” Alfred screamed. “Throw that fire thing from earlier!”

“I can’t,” Arthur gasped between blows. “It’s not so simple.” The man was not stopping in his attempts to reach them.

It was a second between one hit and another that the man turned his head to look sideways. With noise surrounding them they could not hear what he had said and what happened next, only to see him collapsing to deck. Alfred looked at him and saw blood pouring from a hole which was the size of one bullet inside his head.

From the shadow stepped out a silhouette that was previously concealed.

“Arthur!” exclaimed with thick French accent the man who was wearing long captain’s coat in bright blue colour, “I should’ve expected this the minute thiz extraordinary people appeared. I’m so glad to see _mon petit lapi_ n again!” He shook his head with excitement, waving his long blond hair around.

Alfred looked at Arthur who was grimacing but still dissolved the bubble that had surrounded them. “Frog face,” he hissed as the man came closer.

“Zere iz no need to be so rude.” He looked at Alfred with curiosity. “And who is this fine gem?” He leaned closer with a kind smile, but there was calculating gleam in his eyes, which sent shivers down Alfred’s spine. “François Bonnefoi, at your service,” he almost purred.

“Fran- what?” Alfred asked, dumfounded and feeling quite surrounded with the man so close to him.

“That’s enough Francis,” Arthur snapped, pulling the man away from Alfred.

Francis laughed loudly, which even in their war-like surroundings sounded like he was the Sun himself.

“Oh, I see,” he winked at Arthur. “You always got a taste for younger _garçons_. At least this one is older that the last one,” he smirked.

Arthur was almost as red as the blood smeared deck they were standing on when he screamed at Francis, “That was my brother, you bastard!”

“Brotherly love iz still love,” Francis said still smirking while Arthur was ranting at him, screaming profanities at top of his lungs.

Alfred saw a movement from a corner of his eye, at turned around to see Gilbert, Eliza and Mattie coming towards them.

“Everything is over,” Gilbert said, smearing blood mixed with sweat on his forehead. “Those who weren’t killed are below the deck, kept as prisoner. You weren’t saying this would be so much fun,” he said to Arthur.

“You must be Francis,” Eliza eyed Frenchman carefully.

“I see my reputation precedes me. _Mademoiselle_.” He bowed before her and his sight felt on Matthew. “ _Mon_ _Chéri!”_ he exclaimed and in one jump he was beside Matthew, holding his hands. “You should be put in ze frame,” he whispered.

“Hey! Get away from my brother, you perv!” Alfred shouted.

“Now you know what I meant,” Arthur sighed. He came towards Francis and tugged his shoulder. “We must talk. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raise hands, you who got the reference to King Louis XIV :)


	10. Beer for my horses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which they're drinking.

They were standing on the deck, among many men who were busy with after-fight activities – throwing out bodies and cleaning blood from planks. Arthur managed to pry the information of their whereabouts from an unwilling Francis, who was more concerned about tangling himself around confused Matthew.

The year they had landed in was the same year they were supposed to land, looking for the troublesome boy. The location was not, although. Arthur suspected he was too focused on his conversation with Alfred last night and that caused them to land in the same place he was thinking of – Frog’s pirate ship. Not that Arthur would ever admit it was his fault. It was bad enough he had yet to explain to Alfred how bad he was at damage magic.

If that wasn’t enough, Arthur spotted another figure in crimson red captain’s coat, heading in their direction. When the man with olive skin, dark coloured messy hair and smile from ear to ear came closer he did not notice Arthur, who was leaning on railing in the back of the group. Instead he turned to Francis and said, “It’s over. The bastard is locked up and your men are scraping his crew from the deck right now.” He said that with clear joy, smile never disappearing from his smiling face, which now that he was so close they could see was covered in bloodstains.

“Everything for you, _mon ami_ ,” Francis said with fake bow. “ _Mathieu_ , meet my dear friend Antonio,” he pointed to the man, while Matthew turned bright red. “I’ve helped him reclaim his dear ship, who was traitorously stolen from him.”

Antonio finally noticed the rest of the group and smiled brightly to all of them until his eyes laid upon Arthur. His smile immediately fell off his face. “Kirkland,” he said grimly.

“Carriedo.” Arthur nodded and two men were glaring at each other for a second.

Antonio then turned to look at other, bright smile reappearing, as he decided to ignore his former enemy. “So who are your _amigos_?” he asked.

“We’re Arthur’s friends,” Alfred said defiantly, noticing the cold exchange between Arthur and Antonio. “I’m Alfred and this is my brother Matthew,” he said officially.

Antonio’s smile did not waver, like he did not notice the challenge in Alfred’s tone.

“And awesome me is Gilbert Beilschmidt,” Gilbert cut into conversation, extending his hand to Antonio.

The man laughed and shook offered hand. “Nice hair,” he said.

Gilbert smiled brightly and pointed to the ship that was previously attacking them. “Awesome ship.”

Antonio smiled wider, if it was even possible, and the next second they were hugging and clapping each other’s backs like old friends.

“What’s the story between Arthur and Antonio?” Matthew whispered to Francis who was holding him around his shoulders, feigning innocence.

“Zis ship that we reclaimed is not Antonio’s first,” Francis said quite solemnly. “Before zat he had got a small fleet, zat he was so proud of like a father is proud of his children. That same fleet Arthur destroyed to pieces. They were not best friends before that either.”

“Enough of the chit-chat,” Arthur said, stepping forward. “We need to transport ourselves to the right place. Gather around so I can have better grasp of your presences.” His voice was stern as he crossed his arms on his chest and glared at Francis, daring him to say a word.

Which he did. “But you’ve just arrived,” Francis pouted. “And I haven’t got enough time to show _Mathieu_ my wonderful ship and all his dark corners.”

Alfred cringed and Arthur grimaced with disgust as he said, “No, we won’t wait for your shady schemes. I’ve made mistake once; it’s not going to happen again.”

“Can’t we do it later?” Gilbert whined. “It’s not like you’re not able to transport us to exact time so it’s no big deal. And we could hang around a little more and sail with them on those awesome ships.” He smiled broadly to Antonio, while Alfred vigorously nodded his head.

Arthur tried to be reasonable with this decision. He could try to transport them again at this moment, knowing that Gilbert and the rest of the group would be probably disappointed, or he they could wait and sail with Francis crew, having themselves exposed to Frenchman’s antics. The latter seemed like a worse option, but if he had to be honest with himself, he could no longer sense the presence of the boy they were looking for, not to mention that the possibility of returning, in only for a moment, to his previous life-style was tempting.

Sighing heavily he said, “We can stay. But only until we reach next port.”

He was not certain if that was a good decision.

* * *

 

They were heading towards local tavern. After having spent almost a week on Francis’s ship Arthur was as thrilled of feeling salty breeze on his face again as he was tired of constantly chasing Francis away from either Matthew, Alfred, or Elizabeth, or being chased by Francis himself when he was a target. The opportunity to get away from them was welcome, even if an alcohol here was not much better than what Francis had got on his ship.

When they had ordered few bottles of rum and wine the new argument started. If one had to be honest it was not exactly new argument, because they had it every time that alcohol was present. Matthew and Arthur argued that Gilbert and Alfred should not drink, Francis and Antonio argued that Arthur should not drink, and Eliza argued with everyone that they should not argue.

When all of them calmed down and sipped their drinks they’d started separate conversations. While they were sailing to this port it became clear that Gilbert was missing piece of a puzzle to Antonio and Francis. They were almost inseparable and the way they saw some things was almost terrifyingly similar. Even now they secluded themselves from the rest, getting drunk fast and trying to get girls from other side of the tavern to get to their table.

“That’s disgusting,” Eliza said, taking a sip from her bottle.

“You mean this thing?” Alfred waved his bottle in front of his eyes, looking at liquid swaying inside. “It sure is. Haven’t they ever heard of Pepsi?”

Arthur shook his head at them. “It’s 17th century, get it to your head for once.” He looked at Eliza warily. “And you should not drink in public, especially sitting here with us.”

“Oh, come on Arthur,” Alfred whined smiling. “You can’t chase her away.”

Eliza took another sip and said, “I don’t know what the problem is. I’m wearing pants and have my hair tide under this silly hat. I was hiding and getting out of everyone’s way for the entire time we were on Francis’ ship just because he was so scared his crew would riot if they’d knew _about a woman on board_. And now YOU are telling me that I can’t even enjoy a little drink while we’re finally on land?” She practically hissed the last sentence, getting dangerously close to Arthur.

Yet, his voice did not waver as he stared her down and said with a low voice, “Do as you like.”

They sat in awkward silence, while next to them Francis, Gilbert and Antonio were starting a little riot. One on the girls had slapped Francis across his face and another tried to throw a bottle at Gilbert’s head. When she almost succeeded, resulting in said bottle smashed on a wall behind Gilbert, Antonio stood up, trying to calm the situation. He took girls by their arms and trying to sooth them with his best smile he escorted them out, engrossing them in tales about Spain.

Francis and Gilbert, now left without their companion, turned their attention to the rest of the group.

“Cheers!” Gilbert laughed, trying to clink his glass with Eliza’s.

“You have never told me why you’re travelling with us,” Francis said to Arthur, laying his cheek on one of his hands with bored look.

“I’ve never seen a reason. It’s not your concern,” Arthur said.

“We’re looking for some guy,” Alfred said at the same time, followed by Matthew’s cry, “Al! It’s a secret.”

“I have some secrets too, _mon ami_ ,” Francis said in seductive voice, smiling with one corner of his mouth.

“Enough,” Arthur said sternly. “Yes, we are looking for someone. A magic user,” he said quickly, trying to turn Francis attention on a topic instead of Matthew.

“Are you looking for a student that you can discipline? I can volunteer for that,” Francis said quirking his eyebrows.

“God, you really are disgusting,” Eliza said, trying to hit him in the head.

“I don’t think God would appreciate you saying that about him,” Gilbert laughed while she glared at him and took another sip of her drink.

“No, I’m not looking for a student,” Arthur answered, trying his best not to lose his nerve. “We’re looking for a teenager who’s not able to control his magical abilities. He’s probably not fully aware of what’s going on and can cause damage to his surroundings.”

“Do you have any idea where he is?” Francis asked, dodging Eliza’s hands that were still trying to swat him.

“That’s the problem. He’s constantly moving. The only thing we know is that he keeps coming back to this year.” Arthur furrowed his eyebrows, making wrinkles appearing on his forehead.

“Maybe he found his _amour_ ,” Francis inclined.

“I know someone like this,” Antonio interrupted, sitting down next to Gilbert. “I’ve heard about strange disappearing teenager, who could appear in any place he wanted.”

Alfred was excited. Finally they were going forward with their search. He never told anyone, but life on the ship was not something he imagined, not to mention the pirates were not as cool as they were in movies he’d watched. He longed for nice shower and couple of hamburgers, but he could not say anything when Arthur and Gilbert were clearly enjoying themselves on the sea. “Where was it?” he asked excitedly.

“I’ve met this nice Italian man in Livorno, who told me about him.” Antonio smiled broadly with dreamy gaze. “He said he would even show me how he disappears and appears out of nowhere if I ever come by. That, and show me his marvellous tomatoes plantation.”

“Did he say anything else?” Matthew asked.

“Yeah, he said that the guy was constantly bothering his brother.” Antonio said, not looking at them.

“It may be the kid we are looking for,” Eliza said to Arthur.

He pondered the idea for a while, as the rest of the group became bored with silence and switched the topic to latest hangman that was left as a warning near the tavern.

Alfred became curious of Arthur’s silence and the dead man tales were not much of his interest (he was more scared of the hangman that he would admit) so he leaned over the table and asked. “So what are we going to do next? Going after Antonio’s guy or you’re going to try to sense him by yourself?”

Arthur looked at him with resignation. “I’m afraid I would have failed again. It’s easier to transport us to a place I know than to an image of a place I would want to find myself in.”

“So no more sailing? We’re going to just hop to Italy?” Alfred could not decide if he was happy for not spending more time on the sea or sad, for he could spend more time with the little group they’ve formed, including Antonio and Francis who was not a bad guy if he was not clinging on his brother.

Arthur looked sad at the thought. “No more sailing. We’re leaving in the morning.” He took a large gulp from his bottle and slammed it on the table.

* * *

 

It was near midnight and the tavern was filled with more people than it looked like it was meant for. It reminded Alfred of the club in nearby town that was the only place for dancing in reasonable distance. It certainly felt sweaty and crowded like that.

Alfred, who could not stand the taste of things they served there had stopped drinking after his first bottle few hours ago, so he was relatively sober compared to others. They had been sitting at the same table since they came in and everyone had enough level of alcohol that he felt either entertained or grossed out by their behaviour.

Gilbert and Eliza were having a drinking contest, after Gil viciously commented that women have lower alcohol tolerance than men.

His own brother was now ranting to Francis about how everyone was forgetting about him, that he was his own person and not just _other twin_. Not that Alfred really understood why he was feeling like that. He had not paid much notice to those two after confirming that Francis intended to keep his hands to himself and serving Mattie as a friend, not a rapist.

Antonio and Arthur had a loud argument, which they had taken outside for a moment. They both returned with black eyes and since then were acting quite neutral towards each other. Arthur drank another two bottles and fell asleep on the table. Antonio was currently busy with trying to explain to Alfred how tomatoes were not poisonous and should be given to small children, as they prevent smallpox.

“Don’t you think we should take him upstairs?” Alfred interrupted.

Antonio looked surprised to be brought back to reality and looked at Arthur. “No _amigo_. Leave him there. Every man needs a time to rest.”

Alfred looked again at Arthur and thought the table must be uncomfortable to lie on. “Nah, I’m going to take him up.” He shook Arthur’s shoulder a little. “Hey, Grumpy Arty. Wake up. You’re going to bed.”

Arthur made incoherent sound. When Alfred shook his shoulder again he mumbled something that sounded close enough to go by “another rum”.

“No way dude,” Alfred said, dragging Arthur up. “You’re goin’ whether you like it or not.”

He put Arthur’s arms around his shoulder and slowly dragged the man to the rooms they’d rented for a night. He cringed when he saw _the beds_ they were supposed to sleep in, missing hammocks on the ship. At least he was sure there were no rats inside the thing he was sleeping on. Then he tried to lay Arthur down, which ended in almost throwing him on the floor. He tried to think what else one should do before sleeping, and having decided he was responsible for neither Arthur’s bladder, and that he didn’t know the man enough to undress him, he had settled just for taking off Arthur’s boots.

When he threw them on the floor, extinguished the candles and headed for the door, he heard Arthur mumble quietly. “Thank you.”

Alfred smiled and said, “No problem. Everyone needs someone to take care of them once in a while.” And with that he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.


	11. Little Italy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which there is an angry Italian.

Alfred found himself standing on a firm ground this time. He looked ahead of himself and eyed two towers and a wall that was beside them, making the small city look like an old medieval fort. Alfred wondered briefly if it had been a home for the Italian equivalent of King Arthur. That would be awesome.

He looked to his right and eyed Arthur. The man had not said a single word toward him since last night. When he spoke, he spoke to the group as a whole and even that was limited to short, military-like words like “Get up”, “Ready” and “Go”. It was not that Alfred was complaining for not being the closest friend to Arthur, he just didn’t like to be ignored or left out, that’s all.

“I think we should just walk around the town and see if we can spot the man Antonio was describing,” Eliza offered, looking at Arthur as she was waiting for his approval. She also had sensed that it was not the best day to antagonise him.

He stayed silent, looking ahead at one of the towers. Alfred thought that if feelings could have a colour Arthur would be surrounded by mixture of blue and violet – it seemed like he was pondering over things that he could not grasp over.

“Well?” Gilbert insisted, getting a little irritated by the atmosphere. Not to mention he had a little headache after last night, something he would never admit to in front of Eliza.

Arthur did not look at them, still holding his eyes on the tower. After a moment, he said firmly, “Let’s go.” So they’d started walking on a track which soon had turned to brick road that led them to the inner city.

They had been walking for some time, until they were surrounded by stony short buildings that were partially blocking sunlight, giving the impression of being immersed in a labyrinth. The streets were not long and they could already spot the end of the resident area.

Gilbert looked at Eliza, who was turning her head left and right, trying to spot the man they were looking for.

He cleared his throat, trying to get her attention and asked in an unusually soft voice, “I don’t get it.”

She looked at him puzzled and then smiled triumphantly. “You still can’t get over last night? I did not take you for a sore loser.”

“And I did not take you for a quitter,” he said in serious tone.

She looked surprised by that remark. “What are you talking about?” she asked, saying each word slowly, feeling growing fear of answer.

Gilbert looked away from her gaze. “Last night, when we were… when I was losing, you said that you want to give up. That you are tired of trying and waiting.” He looked back, staring directly in her eyes. “What did you mean?” he asked.

She looked struck, slipping in her step, almost stopping completely. “I… I…” she started, but was lost on words, as a fear-stricken look crossed her face. She swallowed audibly and took a deep breath. Then she turned to Gilbert and with blank face and tone of her voice she said, “It should not concern you. I was drunk.”

He looked at her quizzically, trying to understand what’s going on. “But…” he started, but he could not finish his question as she sped up her walk and left him behind without a spare glance.

He stood in the same place dumbfounded until Alfred and Matthew caught up with him.

“She mad at you too?” Alfred asked, patting his shoulder.

Gilbert snapped out of his thought and flashed a radiating smile. “Nah. She couldn’t be. I’m awesome.”

Matthew looked at him questioningly, but did not say a thing about the obvious lie. They walked faster, trying to catch Arthur and Elisa who were far ahead. They had already left the area that one could call a city, with buildings almost next to each other, and were now walking on a track again. On both side of the tracks were fields that were going as far as one could see, the landscape marked only by a few houses and a church on the horizon. They were approaching the next small cottage, surrounded by a short white wall, when it became obvious that they had left the city behind them, not finding the man they were looking for.

“Did anyone see someone who was of any resemblance to that man?” Arthur asked, stopping their march.

“Nothing at all,” Gilbert said, leaning on the wall and looking cautiously at Eliza.

“It’s not so easy,” Alfred whined. “All we know is he’s short, Italian, has a curl of hair sticking out of his head and that he’s the nicest, funniest, cutest man that have ever walked on Earth.” He mocked quotation marks with his fingers in the air.

“Antonio’s opinion seemed pretty biased,” Matthew agreed in quiet voice.

“Hey! You! Bastards! You are Carriedo’s friends?” A voice above their head sounded quite irritated.

They looked up, seeing tall tree behind a wall they were leaning on. On one of thick tree’s branches sat young man, chewing on the apple he was holding in his hand and dangling one of his legs in the air. He had quite eminent scowl on his face, which in addition to his whole uncaring appearance was making it seem like they were unwanted here.

“Hey, he’s got that curl Antonio was talking about!” Gilbert shouted pointing at the Italian.

“Are you listening, you bastards?!” he shouted back at them.

“It could be him,” Arthur said, looking closely at the man. He had a feeling that if he was standing on the ground it would turn out that he was indeed quite short.

“OI! DON’T IGNORE ME!” the man yelled, throwing his half-eaten apple at Arthur’s head, but missing by a meter.

“Don’t you think about a dog when you look at him?” Alfred leaned to his brother with a smirk. “He’s like those funny Yorkshire dogs – very little and very loud.”

Matthew laughed slightly. “I guess so.”

“That’s enough, you _testa di cazzo_!” The man started climbing down the tree, failing miserably as his legs kept on tangling themselves in branches. It was a miracle he did not fall on his head on his way down to the ground from the tree.

“But Antonio was saying that this man was _cute and funny_. Surely, it’s not that,” Eliza said, pointing to the man who was now trying to get up from the ground he had fallen on.

“There is only one way to know,” Arthur said, sighing heavily. He approached the man who was now trying to clean off his trousers from the mud. “Excuse us young man, were looking for Lovino Vargas. We have a common friend and we would like to request his assistance.”

The man eyed him carefully and responded. “That’s me. What do you want?” he almost barked.

Arthur was still smiling, trying to be polite, but careful eye could catch the twitch of his eyebrows, like he was supressing a scowl. “Our… friend Antonio said you could provide some information about a man that you saw disappearing and appearing from nowhere.”

Lovino’s cheeks turned a little pink. “That _bastardo_ send you? Are you his gofers? Why doesn’t he bring his sorry ass himself here? I will tell you nothing!” He stomped his feet on the ground, trying to accent his anger, which made him look more like a child because of his short height.

“Oi, you little…!” Arthur lost his temper and reached with his hand, trying to grab the man by front of his shirt, when his arm was dragged back. He looked at it, seeing Eliza standing next to him. She pushed him aside and smiled brightly at Lovino.

“Hi! I’m Eliza! Forget about those idiots. Antonio said he’s sorry that he could not be here and that he miss you very much and he hopes that we can help you in any way you need,” she rambled.

“That’s not what… OUCH!” Alfred’s objections were interrupted by Gilbert’s elbow.

“Also, he asked you if you could show us around here, because he recommended you as the smartest and bravest Italian around here,” Eliza continued, while Lovino was turning redder.

“That was smooth,” Gilbert whistled quietly.

“He said all of that?” Lovino asked cautiously, looking at Arthur for confirmation.

Arthur looked stunned for a moment, but he shook off quickly. “Of course! All and more.”

Lovino cocked his head, not leaving his eyes from the group, and he said after a quiet moment, “I saw the guy you are looking for. The disappearing one.”

“Really? That’s awesome!” Alfred shouted. “Where is he?”

“He keeps coming to our town. He sticks around for a day or two and then he suddenly disappears.” Lovino looked like he was not sure what he should tell them and what not. “That idiot is constantly crying because of him.”

“What? Who’s crying? That man?” Arthur pried.

“No.” Lovino looked away from them. “My brother.”

* * *

 

They’d been back again on the dusty track, only this time they had additional member to their group. Lovino, after long and loud quarrel, decided he would not let them meet his brother alone. Right now he was grumbling next to Matthew about _magic idiots_ who keep pestering them.

As it turned out, Lovino’s brother was a local priest, residing in the small wooden chapel they had seen from the distance. It turned out to be quite a walk from Lovino’s house, so they had again split into small groups, each of them pondering or fighting with another member of the group.

The atmosphere of their little trip became denser because of those misunderstandings, but no matter how much Alfred was trying to provoke Arthur into talking, no matter how much Gilbert was chasing Eliza who had just kept increasing her distance from him, nothing seemed to get better. Because of those squabbles Lovino was left behind by Gilbert and found the only member of the group that was not chasing after somebody else – Matthew simply had nowhere to go from him.

“So… what is your brother like?” Matthew asked, hoping deep inside that the other Italian would not turn out as hot-tempered as this one. There is already enough of angry people travelling with them.

“He trusts people too much. Doesn’t see how most of you are ungrateful assholes,” Lovino hissed, looking at Matthew with an accusatory glare, like he what the _asshole_ himself. “But I think that the reason he became priest. He likes to help every miserable person he sees.”

Saying that his gaze softened and it was clear that whatever he was saying, he was clearly caring about his brother. Matthew thought he could relate to that. Al kept forgetting about him and to others it may seems like he was stealing Matthew’s spotlight. But they both knew that when there was a trouble the one could always count on another.

“Is he older or younger than you?” he asked.

“Hard to say. We’re twins, but he keeps saying that I’m the older one. It must be, since I’m more reliable than him.” Lovino smirked, but there was still that kind of soft look in his eyes.

“Really? That’s nice. I haven’t met many twins beside me and Al,” Matthew chirped.

“That blond _idiota_ over there is your twin? Unbelievable. You do not look alike at all.” Lovino looked honestly surprised.

“Al is not an idiot. He’s just a little air-headed, that’s all.” Matthew furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a little protective over his brother. “And why do you say that? People usually mistake us for another.”

“Then they’re also _idiote_. It’s plain obvious. He’s a goofy idiot and you’re the most plain and invisible guy I’ve ever met.”

“Wow. Blunt,” Matthew said, not knowing how to react. He was a little happy that someone thought he and Al were clearly different from each other, but the way it was said felt like he should be deeply insulted. Both for Al and for himself.

“Hey! Tomato guy!” Al jelled at them, trying to get Lovino’s attention. “Is it here?” He pointed at the chapel in front of which they’d just arrived.

“Why you stupid-ARGH!” Lovino’s rage was interrupted when Gilbert elbowed him in ribs.

“We should knock and see for ourselves, shouldn’t we?” Arthur proposed, heading to front door, that despite belonging to rather poor chapel were heavily decorated with little sculptures. One could say that it was not a professional hand that carved angelic faces and Alfred wondered if it was Lovino’s brother himself that made it.

They’d entered the building, looking at the wooden floor, polished benches and few sculptures hidden in the shadowy alcoves. What was the most impressive things, was that the whole walls were painted with biblical themes. The details of those paintings were elaborate, which gave the whole building a homely aura. It was obvious that someone took great care of it.

“I’ve told you he was very expressive,” Lovino muttered.

They did not make it to the half of the chapel, when the loud shout was heard bouncing from the walls. “ _Fratello_!” shouted the priest that was running to them. His robes were fluttering from the rush, making him look like he was floating above the ground. “So long! So long!” He threw his arms around Lovino’s neck, almost spinning around him from the force of it. “Why did you not visit me more often?” he whined.

“Let me go Feli,” Lovino grumbled heavily, leaning closely towards the floor form the weight of his brother around his neck. “I was busy.”

“No, you always say such terrible lies. You don’t like your brother anymore,” Lovino’s brother cried, shaking him back and forth with every word.

“Ekhem,” Arthur cleared his throat loudly, trying to get their attention to the rest of the group. It worked, as Lovino’s brother jumped, frightened, and spun around to face them.

“Hi everyone! You’re my brother’s friends? It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Feliciano but most people here call me _Father Feli_. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat? I can prepare something for you.” He smiled brightly while he threw all these words with the speed of light, taking them aback.

“He’s much cuter than his brother,” Eliza whispered to person that was next to her, only to realise it was Gilbert. She threw her head back ostentatiously, which was ruined by her furious blush.

“No, that’s not it.” Arthur stepped a few steps back, distancing himself from the overly-attached Italian. “But thank you for your kindness. We only wanted to ask if you happened to noticed something unusual here or if someone is bothering you? Perhaps some unexplainable things have been happening around here.”

Feliciano laughed loudly. “There’s always something unexplainable happening, but it does not mean it’s not welcome. After all, it’s all happening because of _His_ will,” he smiled softly and pointed up with his finger.

“So there’s nobody teleporting himself or so?” Alfred asked.

“Teleporting? What’s that?” Feliciano looked intrigued. “Everything is fine here.” He waved his hands carelessly. “Although…” He paused.

“What? Have you seen something?” Eliza insisted.

“Now I remember, yesterday’s dinner did not taste very good.” He admitted sadly, making Arthur huff and puff angrily. “Even Ludwig said it was not good and he’s not usually a picky one.” Feliciano, oblivious to angered Arthur beside him, beamed brightly.

Gilbert shifted nervously. “Ludwig?” he asked, finally managing to name the gut feeling he had since Arthur said about mysterious disappearing. Fear. Hope.

“Yes. He comes by from time to time and helps with maintenance. Do you want to meet him?” Feliciano did not notice the way Gilbert shifted, nor did he see the nervous glances Alfred and Matthew shared. Instead of that he turned his head back and shouted towards the back door. “Ludwig! Come and meet our new friends!”

They heard a door opening and closing behind one of the walls. The footsteps were getting louder, as was the voice that was carried by them. “I’ve told you that you can’t call everyone that comes here a fr-…” He gasped loudly and stopped abruptly.

They turned their heads in his direction, seeing a figure partly concealed by a shadow from one of the sculptures. Gilbert took one step forward, as he stared shocked into equal surprised eyes of his own brother.

 


	12. Special

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which there is a mess.

Gilbert stood with his eyes wide open, staring at his long lost little brother. He appeared to be in the same shock as Ludwig, but anyone who knew him better could say that there was burning hell inside of him. He grimaced, trying to contain the burning rage that replaced the first feeling of relief that his brother was safe and sound.

Alfred, who was as oblivious as ever, recovered from the shock the quickest and ran towards Ludwig, enveloping him in a bear hug. “Luddie! You’re alright! That’s awesome!” he screamed into boy’s ears, earning a flinch from Ludwig who did not reciprocate the hug. “You have no idea how much everyone was worried about you!”

“Al…” Matthew tried to pry his brother arms from Ludwig. Unlike his twin, he noticed the stares that Gilbert was throwing and anticipated the worst.

“Oh, come on, Mattie!” Alfred whined, still shaking Ludwig from his eagerness. “We’ve finally found him! And he has magic powers too! Isn’t that amazing?”

Gilbert snorted, which finally got Alfred’s attention. One look at his friend’s scowl and cruel smirk while his eyes still did not leave Ludwig, managed to wipe out Alfred’s smile. “Yes. Isn’t that just fucking amazing?” Gilbert almost spat out the last word, like it was the nastiest word that humanity ever came up with.

“ _Bruder_ …” Ludwig started, looking sadly at his older brother, who didn’t let him finish.

“Magic, huh?” Gilbert said, taking one step forward. “So you’ve just found yourself a new toy,” he gestured all around Ludwig, taking next step forward, ”and new friends,” he pointed to Feliciano, who was visibly shaking from stress and fear, “and you have just decided to abandon the old ones and your family, because they were dull, boring, ordinary people, who were far below your majestic self?!” Gilbert screamed the last few words, clearly losing control over his anger. He stopped a few steps before Ludwig, puffing through his nose.

“ _Bruder_ , listen to me. I’ve-…“ Ludwig tried to explain.

“No! You listen to me!” Gilbert almost jumped the remaining space between him and Ludwig. “Do you have any idea what everyone was going through when you left? What our parent’s thought? They blamed me. Me! They even thought that I’d murdered you! All that when you went travelling through the world, flying on the unicorns and who knows what else. All that without a single note to anyone!” he was clenching his fists while his arms were shaking from constrained anger.

“Gil, I know that yo-…” Matthew tried to console his friend, but Gilbert shoved away the hand from his arms.

“Go away! This is not your business!” he screamed.

“Hey! Watch your words.” Alfred glared at his friend, ready to defend his twin.

“ _Bruder_ , it’s not really my fault.” Ludwig tried to calm his brother once again. “I’ve tried-…” before he was able to finish the sentence, Gilbert fist hit him in the jaw.

“LIKE HELL YOU’VE TRIED!” he screamed. He stood above his fallen brother, panting hard from twirl of emotions he felt. All those years that his parents, colleagues, townsman blamed him for Ludwig’s disappearance came back, pouring from him in a form of pure rage. But there was also sadness, worry and relief that his brother was alive, not buried under nameless spot in the forest, chopped by a mad killer, like some believed. Because of those emotions, immediately after he punched Ludwig, he dropped down to his knees, crying from relief. “I’m so glad you’re alive,” he sobbed.

The all stood still, watching their reunion. Feliciano, still hiding behind one of the benches, screamed after Gilbert punched Ludwig, terrified. Matthew was trying to decide who should he console first – Gilbert or Ludwig. Alfred had his hands in mid-air from when he tried to stop Gilbert from delivering the punch. Arthur and Eliza standing where they had been from the very beginning, trying to decide if they should interfere or not.

“Well, that was quite a drama,” Arthur said, glancing at Ludwig who was trying to get up from the ground.

“Such a brotherly love,” Eliza sighed. She clearly thought of the whole incident as an utmost interesting spectacle.

“My guess is that this young man, currently lying on the floor, is the man we have been looking for.” He walked towards them, stopping right before Ludwig. “I guess you own us an explanation,” he said.

“That’s exactly what I was trying to do,” Ludwig said, looking at his brother, but there was no accusation in his eyes. “I know I haven’t been the most responsible person towards my family and friends, but it’s not like I haven’t tried contacting you,” he said, massaging his jaw that was starting to really hurt.

“Maybe you better sit down!” Feliciano chirped, being immediately at Ludwig’s side as soon as he stood up. Lovino growled at the sight of their closeness, as Feliciano grabbed Ludwig’s arm and proceed to drag him to the nearest bench. When they all gathered together, some closer, as for Feliciano, some farther, as for Gilbert, Ludwig had begun his tale.

He explained to them how he had experience this strange feeling since his childhood, when he disappeared and reappeared in different places. He had no control over it and luckily it had been happening so rarely that no one took notice. If they suspected something, it was that he had unusual likening to hide-and-seek game. That was happening until he grew to his teenage years. That’s when things started to get out of control. Strange things were happening more often and he noticed that there was a significant time difference between disappearing and appearing. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. One time it was even a whole day. Nevertheless, it was not even a time needed to transport from one place to another. All those situations had one thing in common –he could not appear back to a place he firstly disappeared, nor could he transport himself back to that time period. He could not understand what was happening. He started to avoid people. And just like that, one time he disappeared to a place that was completely unknown for him. He could not come back to his home, so he gave up, travelling further and further in time and space. In the meantime he started to understand that he was time-travelling and if he interacted too much with people he met, he would be involuntary threw further away. That was until he met Father Feliciano. For some reason he was able to interact with him to a certain degree of closeness. Firstly they had begun to talk, then eat from time to time together and now he even started to live in the spare room at the back of the chapel. If he made a mistake with someone else and was transported to another time, all it took to come back to this time and place was to think hard about Feliciano’s little church. He thought that if he couldn’t come back to his old home, this place could be as well a new one.

First one to break the silence after Ludwig’s story was Arthur. He was of course touched by the boy’s misery, but they’ve came here with a mission, so he tried to get to the point with his case. “Have you ever experience any unnatural thing beside your… teleportation,” he searched for the right word.

Matthew send quick accusatory glance in his direction, but Ludwig seemed to not be bothered with such a harsh change of topic, as he answered, “No. Just this.”

“Good,” Arthur noted shortly.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?” Gilbert asked quietly. His voice barely reached their ears, because he tried to maintain some distance from Ludwig after he lost his temper. His was standing slumped, visibly broken.

Ludwig looked up to his older brother. “Would you believe me if I said that I have a magical powers? And if you did, wouldn’t you be scared of me?” he asked, not a trace of smile on his face.

Gilbert shook his head, as in contradiction to his words. “Of course I would! You’re my brother! I thought that you trusted me,” he added.

“I do. But I wanted to spare you the staring. You’ve got enough of that without a freak brother,” Ludwig answered, staring right into Gilbert’s eyes.

“Idiot, I’m the freak brother. Not you,” Gilbert answered with shaky voice. He stepped forward and Alfred rose to defend Ludwig, but it was not necessary, as both brothers fell into each other’s arms.

“This is beautiful,” Eliza said, while Feliciano cried happily, joining the hug.

“This is disgusting,” grumbled Lovino, gritting his teeth at the sight before him.

Alfred couldn’t find a place for himself in this situation and felt quite uncomfortable looking at his best friend, who was one of the toughest people he knew, crying in front of him. He desperately looked for something he could do in this situation, that’s why he asked the first question that came up in his mind. “So how are we going to get Ludwig back?”

“It’s quite easy. With a little training he could actually be able to go whenever and wherever he wished,” Arthur said calmly. Feliciano, who was clinging to one of Ludwig’s arms, looked alarmed.

“That’s awesome!” Alfred exclaimed. “Did you hear? You can finally come back!” He patted Ludwig on the back, which earned glare from the boy.

“But how he was able to come back to the same spot every time?” Eliza asked, looking like a hawk that spotted some prey.

Arthur groaned inwardly, knowing that his answer would be most likely be oil for Eliza’s twisted-romance engine. “It’s because he felt strongly attached to this place. Or people there,” he said, trying to give best vague answer he could.

But it was not enough to stop Eliza’s sharp mind. She gasped, throwing quick look at Feliciano and Ludwig. Then she made a face of person who was struggling with herself to not speak her mind. She would probably do just that Ludwig did not interrupt her.

“I’m not going back,” he said quietly.

Feliciano gave an excited yell, clinging closely to Ludwig. This surprisingly elicited almost no reaction from the boy, because he sat as straight as previously, which made him alike those statues of saints hidden in the corners of the chapel. The only visible response to such closeness was a slight blush on his cheeks.

Gilbert backed away from Ludwig, his previous relief and happiness being replace once again by anger. “What do you mean you’re not coming back? Of course you are,” he said sternly with an authoritarian voice, that neither his own brother nor his friend ever heard from him. This was Gilbert. He was supposed to be fun and careless, not strict and demanding.

“You don’t understand,” Ludwig said resigned.

“Then make me understand!” Gilbert was practically screaming at his brother. “Tell me, why my little brother turn into someone I completely don’t know? Why he decided that his family and friends were less important than some random strange Italian priest who acts like a five-year old?” He gestured towards Feliciano, who in this moment really looked like a little child, clinging to Ludwig and looking ahead with wide, scarred eyes.

“Oi! Don’t you dare talk about my _fratello_ like that, you bastard!” Lovino stepped forward, puffing angrily. He tried to grab Gilbert’s shirt around a collar, but because he was almost a head shorter than the albino, he managed to clench his fist on the fabric around the chest. This made him look like a child needing attention from a parent and he was treated exactly like that, when Gilbert pushed him away one-handed, without even looking at him. Lovino then tried to force Feliciano away from Ludwig, but was brushed away by his twin with quiet plea, “Not now, Lovi”. When all his attempts to protest failed, he stormed out of the chapel. He had even tried to kick the incrusted door behind him, which only resulted with more cursing from him, as door was heavy enough to not be closed fast from such a weak force.

“I won’t come back with you. It’s hard to explain,” Ludwig casted quick glance at Feliciano, “but I’ve gotten used to being here. After this long it also feels more like home here. I’m sure you can handle yourself perfectly fine.”

“And what do you know about that? You weren’t there for the last few years.” Gilbert looked defiantly into Ludwig’s eyes. It was clear that his angry behaviour was melting away in front of his brother’s calm demeanour. “You’re going back with me and that’s it.”

“Guys, please,” Alfred whined. “We’re going in circles. Just make up already and get over it. It’s not like Luddie won’t come visit us once in a while. That’s of course when Arthur will teach him how to not kill himself or get lost in space.” He flashed a bright smile in Arthur’s direction, but did not get a reaction, as he was pondering over something else, looking carefully at Ludwig.

Gilbert was silent for a moment, thinking about what they’ve said. Considering his previous actions it was even calming. “I guess if you can visit from time to time I can agree to that,” he said, making it sounds like Ludwig’s action depended on his permission.

“Fantastic!” Eliza clapped his hands and enveloped Father Feli and Ludwig in tight hug, much to the latter’s discomfort. “Now you can stay forever and ever together.” Behind her Gilbert made a twisting motion with a hand around his head. _She’s lost it_ , he mouthed.

“You can’t stay here,” Arthur said finally.

“I thought we’d finally got over it,” Alfred whined.

“It’s not about who wants what. He simply cannot stay here, or to say it in more clearer way, he cannot stay in the same time and place for a longer time. For now he was interrupted before changing anything significant in the timeline, but his prolonged presence here may cause seriously damage,” Arthur explained.

“But what could possibly happen?” Eliza asked, looking concerned. She was travelling with Arthur for quite a long time and never had she heard about this kind of problems. “He’s not doing anything to the surroundings and it would change nothing in Father Feli’s future. You don’t have a children, do you?” she bluntly asked the priest.

“No! Of course not!” he exclaimed, shocked by the question.

“I don’t know what is going to happen because I’ve never met a person who wants to stay where they were threw,” Arthur answered, rubbing his forehead. He was starting to get annoyed by this whole situation. “It could be anything, from nothing to complete destruction of this timeline. The most important thing is actually not him being here, but him missing from where he belongs. There is a missing person from the time you’re from and we must make this equation right.”

“Hey! Don’t talk about my little brother like he was a thing!” Gilbert protested. Apparently he decided to calm down and listen to his brother’s reasoning once again.

“So you’re also a magical person?” Feliciano asked curiously and it occurred to them, that no one actually explained to the priest what they were doing here what was going on.

“This is a bloody mess,” Arthur sighed. Too many people were either arguing or talking at the same time and it did not look like it was going to end any time soon. They hadn’t been there for even a day.

“But wait, doesn’t him being here mean that there is already a time when everything collapsed?” Alfred asked, biting his lower lip. It was hard thinking about different possibilities, but he felt that it was something that should be obvious to someone interested in space as much as he was. “I mean, what if we let him stay? Couldn’t we just skip to time and space where everything was ok, where our hometown existed? We could leave the timeline with disaster and choose the better one,” he concluded happily, proud of his reasoning.

“It doesn’t work like that, Alfred. It’s true that there are different paths of time, but you can’t just freely jump from one to another. We are stuck on the one our destiny has begun, whether we like it or not.” Arthur said with tired voice, but he couldn’t help feeling a little shocked by Alfred’s little speech. He remembered their talk on the manor’s stairs, surprised that the boy had more “reasonable” moments than he previously thought.

“That was… deep, Eyebrows,” Gilbert said, making Arthur grimace from the nickname.

He was about to respond with snarky comment, but was interrupted by screaming Lovino, who managed to shove the door with loud thud on his way back inside the chapel. He ran towards them, screaming unintelligible words on his way. When he finally got to them, he started gasping for air from the run and screaming.

“Brother! What’s happened?” Feliciano was right next to his brother without a moment to spare.

Lovino, still panting and grasping for air, tried to speak. “Knights. They’re here. Knights for the-…” He was interrupted when said figures entered through the door. In few swift movements the inside of the chapel filled with dozen of armed knights, few rich looking officials. They could also heads of the villagers standing outside.

One of the officials stepped forward towards them, holding out a scroll with a seal on a golden rope dangling from one side, and said with a booming voice, “Where is Father Feliciano?”

Feliciano rose from the floor, where he was kneeling next to Lovino. Although he was visibly trembling, his voice was clear and calming when he answered. “Here I am. What is that you need from me, my good people?”

The official cleared his throat and recited, “We are here to hereby declare that you are hosting a dangerous character under your roof. Said creature was accused of unnatural occurrences, therefore of witchcraft. It has to be put under a trial. If you fail to bring such creature to justice with us, or should you choose to interrupt with our doing, you’re going to be charged with helping of witchcraft.” He put back the scroll he was reading from. “Now, please Father, cooperate.”


	13. Remedy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one in which mystery is solved.

The first one to react was Gilbert. He stepped forward towards the man with his fist clenched tightly.

“What did you call my brother?” he growled.

The man looked surprised at him and the knights around tightened the semi-circle, effectively cutting the way out through the door.

“Your brother?” the man asked, and he glanced at everyone else present in the chapel. His gaze lingered a little longer at Alfred’s watch, Eliza’s pants and Gilbert’s red eyes. Through Alfred’s mind flashed a thought that it was a good thing they did not oppose changing into clothes Francis offered them on the ship. The man turned to Feliciano with stern look. “Father, what is this unholy group doing in your church? Are you supporting those acts of witchcraft?”

‘What? No! I would never step out of God’s way!” Feliciano protested, shaking visibly. “These are good people. And Ludwig is my friend.” He pointed towards Ludwig in miserable attempt to convince them to change their mind.

“I see.” The official sounded almost sad. “If that’s the way it is then I’m afraid you should be held captive until we decide about your future. I’m sorry father – that’s the will of the people.” Almost like to prove his words right the crowd outside started to yell, demanding justice.

“Are you insane?!” Lovino ran forward and grabbed the official by his tunic. “You’re turning against your own priest! It’s my own brother you’re calling a servant of evil. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, even if it deserved it,” he spat out last words, looking directly in the official’s eyes, but he merely pushed him away like a noisy kid. Then he turned back to the knights, giving orders. “Seize them all, priest included. Kill the wizard.”

Alfred turned, scared, to Arthur, ready to protect him from any knight that would come, but one look at him an enraged shout from Gilbert made him realise that they were talking about Ludwig. Most of the knights turned to catch Feliciano, Lovino and Matthew, who were cornered next to one of the statues. They were defended by Eliza, who ran in front of them with her sword, ready to fight anyone who came closer. The rest of the knights turned towards Ludwig with their swords ready to pierce the boy. Gilbert ran towards them with his own weapon and started to cut his sword disorderly, blinded with rage. “Don’t. You. Dare. Touch. My. Brother!” he spat out after every hit.

Alfred charged the nearest knight, shouting back to Arthur, “Do something!”

“But what?” he shouted back, looking around for some kind of weapon, as his own sword was lying near the altar. His eyes landed on a candle holder that he grasped like a spear and hauled off hitting knight next to him. Alfred’s help made Gilbert’s situation a little better, but because of the knights’ strength and the fact that they were wearing armours covering almost entire area of their bodies, they were constantly pushed back.

They were getting so close to Ludwig, that when Gilbert dodged a sword that was swung at his head, it actually hit a bench next to which Ludwig was standing. Seeing that, Gilbert charged the knight with all his force. They fell to the ground, yanking each other’s arms. When knight’s sword fell from his hand Gilbert pressed down knight’s arm by his knee and started punching his face. The man soon lost his consciousness and with a smirk of triumph Gilbert stood up. Before he managed to turn around another knight used the moment to drive his sword through Gilbert’s back.

It all happened so quickly that before anyone could react Gilbert was lying down with a pool from his own blood that was quickly expanding. When Alfred noticed the situation, Ludwig was already trying to drag Gilbert away from the fight, hastily speaking in broken English-German. “Arthur!” he screamed at the wizard, who didn’t notice what happened. “Gilbert!”

Arthur looked back and his eyes widened with realisation of what had happened. He immediately dropped his makeshift weapon and threw back the knights that surrounded him with a force that emitted from his palms. Then he struck the knight that Eliza was fighting with and the ones around Alfred. Before anybody could react all of the knights were down.

Arthur was panting heavily, leaning on one of the benches. The official, who was still near the door, looked in the highest panic at Arthur. “DEMON! He’s the Devil!” he screamed at top of his lungs, pointing at Arthur. There was an uproar outside and the villagers started pouring inside the chapel, all of them wielding some kind of weapon.

“We can’t fight them all,” Alfred shouted to Arthur, who straightened his back and closed his eyes, tensing. Suddenly a wall of fire erupted from the ground between them and the lynch mob.

“Hang in there!” Arthur yelled with a hoarse voice and Alfred felt familiar tug of travelling.

Before anyone could say anything all of them were back inside the manor. Alfred looked back from wide-eyed Italians and saw Arthur swaying back. He tried to catch him before he felt, but was too far away and Arthur hit the ground, unconscious.

Everyone was still in various states of panic and shock. Feliciano tried to hug Ludwig, which was difficult because the boy was shaking Gilbert back and forth, muttering something quietly. When Eliza saw them on the ground she emitted high-pitched noise and kneeled on the other side of the albino, who look grotesque with the sword still inside him. Lovino was too distracted by the travel and magic, and he was cursing with all the force he had, yanking himself from the grasp of Matthew, who took the role of taming the angry Italian.

Alfred kneeled beside Arthur, leaning near his face and he laid one hand on the man’s chest. Gladly, he discovered that Arthur was indeed only unconscious, as he could feel the man’s faint breath on his cheek and the slight raising and falling of his chest. With a small blush he picked up Arthur’s limp body in his arms and carried him out to the next room. He laid him down on the sofa and lightly brushed Arthur’s bangs from his eyes. He realised his action and remembered about Gilbert, so he quickly went back to the previous room.

He joined the small crowd that was surrounding Gilbert. It appeared that someone finally took out the blade from Gilbert’s flesh. He kneeled next to Eliza, who was staring at Gilbert’s body without the word.

“Is he…” he hesitated. “Is he breathing?” he asked her quietly.

“No,” she answered blankly. “I don’t understand,” she said after a moment of silence. “All those times that it stopped us from doing something stupid. Stopped us from… dying.” She barely managed to say those words. “And now it decides that it doesn’t matter for him. That he’s not important enough not to die.” She shook her head furiously. “I don’t believe it. I trusted him. I trusted Arthur that he knew what he was doing. What else was he wrong about?” She clenched her fists in anger.

He didn’t know what he could say that would comfort her in this situation. He didn’t think that it was Arthur’s fault. From what he could see, the wizard drove himself to the edge, trying to save them, and being accused and almost killed himself. But he couldn’t deny that Gilbert’s situation was odd. He refused to think _dead_. His mind didn’t really register the event that happened in past fifteen minutes. He desperately tried to think of something he could do in this situation and be useful. His sight laid on Matthew, who was still struggling to keep Lovino’s rampage under control.

“I will take the brothers out of here,” Alfred said to Eliza, who only nodded in response. When he stood up he heard loud gasp, followed by a sharp cough. He turned around to see Gilbert coughing up blood. They all froze. Even Ludwig stopped speaking and shaking his brother. Gilbert coughed up more blood, opened his eyes and rolled over to one side.

“Ouch. Fucking hell,” he groaned between gasping. “That hurts like hell.”

“ _Oh, mio Dio_!” Feliciano exclaimed.

“ _Bruder_!” Ludwig shouted, helping Gilbert sit up.

“That’s impossible,” Matthew said, letting go of Lovino, who stopped struggling.

“What’s the matter with you guys?” Gilbert asked, his gaze slightly dazed. He looked around them at the walls. “Why are we back already? Does this mean that you’re coming back?” he asked Ludwig?

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Eliza asked.

“I remember fighting with a knight and defeating him in an awesome style. Then one of them sneaked up on me and hit me in the back… Wait a minute! Did he hit me?” He tried to look at his back. “That’s why it hurts so much.”

Eliza leaned forward and grabbed his shirt, lifting it up. “Whoa! Girl! Not so fast! We haven’t even been on a real date,” Gilbert laughed but it died quickly when he saw the state his clothes were in. “Is this my blood? Was I really stabbed?”

Eliza ran her hand on Gilbert’s back, cleaning the skin from the blood that was quickly drying up. They all saw that the cut was not as deep and wide as it should be. It was healing itself up.

“Unbelievable,” she whispered, running her hand over the wound.

“Hey, it’s tickling,” Gilbert shrugged from her touch. “Careful woman, it still hurts. Maybe I will have awesome manly scar to show later,” he laughed, waiting for their reaction. “What’s wrong with you guys? What has happened?”

“You died, _Bruder_ ,” Ludwig said with calm voice, but it was obvious that he was relieved to see his brother alright.

“What? Are you serious? But… how?” Gilbert once again tried to look at the wound on his back, which now looked like a small cut.

“You were stabbed like a pig by one if those knights, that’s what happened,” Lovino spat out angrily. “Now can someone explain something to ME? Where the hell are we?”

“That’s not awesome at all,” Gilbert said, ignoring Lovino. “But why am I sitting here with you then? Am I,” he dropped his voice down to theatrical whisper, “a god?” he smirked.

“Yeah, sure dude. Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Alfred laughed. “But seriously, I think that there is only one person that could explain everything that happened to us and he’s out,” he gestured towards the door leading to next room.

“Don’t ignore me, bastards!” Lovino stomped angrily.

Eliza, who was looking quietly at Gilbert seemed to wake up from her own thoughts and stood up. She straightened her pants, looking still quite distressed. “I’m going to explain everything to you. Follow me. We should not bother them,” she said quietly, not looking at anyone particular. After that she went out the room and was quickly followed by angry Lovino and Feliciano, who was happily looking at their surroundings.

That left the four of them in the room. “Well, I say we move your sick ass to some place more comfortable than floor,” Alfred smiled at Gilbert. “Come on, give me your arm. I will lift you like a pretty little bride,” he laughed.

“You fuc-!” Gilbert shouted but was interrupted by Ludwig, who despite his younger age lifted his brother easily from the ground. “I’ll do it,” he said.

Alfred looked slightly confused. He turned to Matthew. “Well, it seems that nobody wants any help from us. I don’t know about you Mattie but I’m super hungry. Let’s plunder the kitchen.” He stretched his arms and went out of the room, followed soon by Matthew.

* * *

 

It was late in the night and the manor was engrossed in a silence. The Italian brothers were sleeping in one of the spare rooms, after Eliza explained, or tried to explain in Lovino’s case, who they are and what had happened. Feliciano took all the new information with calm demeanour, claiming all of those to be _a gift from God himself, and another one of His wonderful doing_ , and was happy that everything turned out well with Ludwig’s brother. Matthew and Alfred were put into another spare room and judging from loud snores that emitted from behind that door, they were already sleeping.

Eliza walked slowly the dark halls. Her already quiet steps were muffled more by the thick carpet. She stopped in front of the door to the room Gilbert was resting in. With her hand mid-air, she hesitated. It was something normal to check up on a sick person, right?

_Who am I kidding_ ; she thought and lightly pushed the door open. It creaked on its hinges; a noise that sounded like a shot in the night. She stopped, looking at Ludwig, who decided to stay with his injured brother. The boy was sleeping soundly, half sitting in a chair, half leaning on the wall. She looked towards the bed but was surprised to find it empty. Soft blow of the wind tickled her skin. She noticed that the door to the balcony was opened. There was a figure standing outside. She tiptoed next to Ludwig and stepped out to the balcony. Just as she thought, there was Gilbert, leaning on the balustrade.

“You should rest, not wander around,” she said, stopping next to him.

He smiled at her. “I got bored. Besides, I’m already healthy. Look,” he pulled up his shirt, pointing to the place where his wound supposed to be, “there’s nothing here. Don’t be such a worry-wart,” he jabbed her in the rib. She didn’t react and continued to stare at the moon which was shining brightly above them.

Gilbert looked at her solemn face. “Ok, I get it. You’re not in the mood for joking,” he said in a serious tone.

They were standing for a moment in silence, before Eliza said in a soft voice, “I was really scared.”

Her voice and the odd gleam in her eyes put Gilbert on the edge. It wasn’t something that he would expect from a strong woman like her. “Scared of what?” he asked.

Another long pause of silence. He shuffled his feet restlessly. This quiet behaviour was making him nervous.

“I’d never told you why I was travelling with Arthur, have I?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the sky above them.

He understood that this was not the time for jokes. It was clear how much energy it cost her to open up to him. “No. You haven’t,” he answered calmly.

“I’d been married once, you know?” she started softly. “Roderich was an angel. Kind, noble, passionate about the things he really cared. That would be mostly his music, but I did get fair share of that too,” she smiled. “I was also from noble family, but we were poorer than the Edelsteins. With the amount of money they had they could be easily royals. When I married Roddie, God knows I still don’t know how that happened; we had everything that you could ever dream of. A palace filled with happy servants, stables filled with healthy horses for me to ride on, corridors filled with artists with their paintings for Roddie to contemplate. I think that’s what destroyed us. We were too happy to notice that not everyone was content with us having money.”

She turned around to face the glass door. “Nobody suspected anything. One day I was walking the corridors inside our little palace. I wanted to tell Roddie that our cook found new recipe for a cake. Roddie loved cakes. I walked towards music room, where he always practise a new music set. Did I tell you how he loved music?” She glanced quickly at Gilbert’s confused face. “No? Well, he did. That’s what should be a tip-off for me. There was unnatural silence around that part of the building. When I walked inside the room it took one glance to know why. There he was, laying on his beloved piano, blood pouring on the marble floor.” She took a deep breath, taking a break in her story.

“They told me later it was a matter of succession for the throne. Frankly speaking, I don’t believe in any of that. Roddie was twenty-something in the line for the throne. Everything after that fell apart. Money was taken by one of his cousins, as apparently our marriage could be cancelled. Something about bribing the bishop. I was devastated and couldn’t find a place without him. I took comfort in travelling and on one of those journeys I heard from simple commoners about a man who helps those with unusual problems. Magical problem. I didn’t believe in it at first, but as the time went by I realised I was holding onto that tiny rope of hope. Somewhere in my brain I understood that if he helps with magic he can use it himself. And as you can see I wasn’t mistaken,” she smiled a little, but it fell off her face quickly.

“I searched and searched, and I found him. At first he did not want to help me. You’ve got an occasion to see how he is.” She looked at Gilbert, but instead of laughter he found only sadness in her eyes. “But eventually he agreed to my idea. I was to turn back in time and stop that murder from happening. Everyone was supposed to live happily ever after.” She sighed loudly.

“But it didn’t work,” she continued. “Every time there was something in the way. The door was locked, the servant tripped me, there was a fire in the kitchen, or he was killed an hour later in the stables. If I’d ever become close to saving him, then time itself prevented me from helping. And to all of that I had to avoid myself from previous attempts. After what seemed like a hundredth time I just gave up. He wasn’t supposed to be saved.”

She turned towards Gilbert, gripping tightly the balustrade. He had an instant urge to grasp her hand to calm her. Instead of that he asked her quietly, “So that’s why you’re travelling with him?”

“Yes. I couldn’t go back to my time. Not after all that happened. It’s bad enough that I didn’t find a way to save him. But I couldn’t go back to that house, living normal life.” She turned back to staring at the moon, taking away her hand from the balustrade.

They stood in silence. She thought about what has happened during last couple of years. How her life turned upside down.

“I’m sorry.” Gilbert broke the silence and she looked at him questioningly.

“What for?” she asked.

“For having to watch somebody die again. For being an ass,” he smirked and was happy to see that she smiled too.

“Don’t apologise for something you’re going to do either way,” she said, punching him lightly on the arm.

“What? I’m not intending to die again,” he laughed. “Anyway, I think I had it figured out. It must be my special power,” he smiled broadly.

“Special power?” she raised her eyebrows in mocking confusion.

“Yeah. You remember what Mr. Grumpy said about special powers? And we didn’t know what was mine. It could be this! I could be immortal!” He punched the air with triumphant shout.

“Quiet, you monkey. You’re going to wake your brother,” she said.

“Nah. It’s ok. He deserves no special treatment after that stunt with disappearing he put. As his older brother I have every right to discipline him,” he laughed.

She turned towards the door and started walking out. “Don’t involve me in this,” she said. “I’ve only come to see if you’re ok.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said.

She was almost at the door outside the room, when Gilbert shouted, making Ludwig shift in his sleep. “Hey, gorilla girl!”

She turned around with angry scowl. “What?” she hissed.

“I don’t think you gave up. You’ve done everything you could and just moved on. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said solemnly.

She calmed down and there was a small sad smile on her face. “Thank you, Gil,” she said and walked out the room.


End file.
